You Can’t Repair Your Psychological Well being With Duct Tape.
The opinions on this weblog don’t essentially replicate the opinions or ideas of Males’s Well being Community. This weblog was contributed by Man Remedy®
By: Journey Starkey, VP of Partnerships, Man Remedy®, Dr. Jodi J. Frey, Professor and Affiliate Dean for Analysis, College of Maryland College of Social Work, Amanda Mosby, Program Supervisor, College of Maryland College of Social Work, and Erika Shook, Public Relations Specialist, College of Maryland College of Social Work
In his 2020 e-book, Upstream, Dan Heath got down to discover the significance of reimagining system-level interventions which can be designed to help people upstream of disaster.
Within the e-book’s introduction, he writes, “While you spend years responding to issues, you possibly can typically overlook the truth that you may be stopping them . . . Upstream efforts are broader, slower, and hazier – however after they work, they actually work. They will accomplish huge and long-lasting good.”
By his estimation, if we may shift our efforts to focus extra on prevention of issues, slightly than response to them, society may extra successfully and effectively handle issues at their root as a substitute of regularly making an attempt to deal with signs of an issue. Not solely would this ideological shift guarantee extra persons are higher outfitted to assist themselves, entry help, and lead more healthy, more-fulfilling lives, it will additionally assist break the cycle of at all times responding to crises which will increase the burden on already-taxed methods of care.
Beginning In 2012, our group introduced an identical mindset to 1 more and more difficult, but important space of want: males’s psychological well being. Via a collaborative partnership between the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Surroundings, Denver-based advertising company, Cactus, and Grit Digital Well being, a group of clinicians, suicidologists, public well being staff, technologists, and advertising specialists got down to construct a inventive strategy that took rising charges of suicide and rising psychological well being considerations amongst working-aged males head on.
The results of that collaborative effort was the primary psychological well being marketing campaign designed to indicate males that addressing their psychological well being is the manliest factor a person can do – Man Remedy®. Our foundational analysis revealed that, whereas many males have addressable psychological well being wants, a big proportion of them are hesitant, and even resistant, to searching for assist. This barrier to help-seeking ends in damaging downstream penalties, like a rise in suicide deaths and extra acute psychological well being crises. It additionally highlights a spot in messaging and assets which can be designed for males, successfully resonate with them, and encourage them to take motion.
Man Remedy’s core perception is that, in terms of psychological well being, one of the best protection is an efficient offense, and, with just a little effort and elbow grease, we are able to construct instruments that present psychological well being schooling and help for males upstream of disaster. On this article, we’ll discover why it was important to construct a male-centric psychological well being software, the significance of continuous to smash stigma round males’s psychological well being, and the way forward for Man Remedy as a significant public well being software.
1. Bridging the Hole: A Manly Strategy to Psychological Well being
The dialog across the significance of supporting males has taken on new life lately, and plenty of people and organizations at the moment are dedicating their efforts to fixing the issue of “what to do about males.” Nevertheless, this has not at all times been the case, and plenty of males nonetheless take care of the lingering help hole attributable to an absence of instruments and programming that meet their distinctive wants. In america, statistics round males’s psychological well being spotlight this:
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SAMSHA information reveals that over 24.6 million males expertise a psychological well being situation, but many males typically select to not search assist for his or her psychological well being as a result of stigma.
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The CDC experiences that, whereas males make up 50% of the inhabitants in america, they account for ~80% of suicide deaths and are ~4x extra more likely to die by suicide than ladies.
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The Nationwide Institute of Well being notes that 1 in 5 adults stay with a psychological well being situation, however solely 40% of grownup males search assist for his or her psychological well being.
On prime of the information highlighting this males’s psychological well being disaster, we’re additionally up towards a negatively labeled view of masculinity that reinforces how males ought to be sturdy and stoic, bury their feelings, and maintain a stiff higher lip. Whereas this “cowboy up” mentality will be argued to drive outcomes like resilience and fortitude, when harnessed within the improper approach, it might probably result in a dangerous view of 1’s psychological and emotional well being that leaves many males feeling remoted of their struggles. To not point out, it reiterates the false notion that searching for assist, and counting on neighborhood for help, is a weak spot, not a power. What’s more and more apparent to many now could be that males are struggling in a singular approach, and to successfully handle these struggles, an equally daring and distinctive answer is required.
After we began work on Man Remedy, the boys we interviewed supplied suggestions that the easiest way to attach with them was to speak to them the best way they talked to one another. So, we constructed a software that leaned into humor to subvert those self same masculine tropes that always forestall males from reaching out for assist. In doing so, we have been capable of get males to do one thing about their psychological well being. In a current interview, our Founder – Joe Conrad – put it this fashion, “Oftentimes when males wish to deflect a subject or a stress, they use humor. And so we’re utilizing that very same approach to get them to drop their defenses, lean in just a little bit, and be open to fascinated by psychological well being in a complete new approach.”
In brief, Man Remedy’s “large thought” is that utilizing humor and male stereotypes – with a fictional therapist named Dr. Wealthy Mahogany, and taglines like “It’s a bodily in your emotions, however you get to maintain your pants on” – is an efficient approach to bridge the help hole and ship on our three principal targets:
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Smash by psychological well being stigma
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Get males pondering otherwise to take motion with their psychological well being
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Cut back suicide in our communities
From the onset, our goal has been to construct a framework of help that resonates with males throughout lived experiences, is instantly accessible, and helps join males to actionable assets that guarantee they’ve the instruments essential to help themselves, it doesn’t matter what curveballs life throws their approach.
2. Smashing the Stigma & Supporting Males Upstream
Whereas Man Remedy has helped transfer the needle on overcoming many help-seeking challenges for males – ManTherapy.org has over two million guests, we’ve had over 500,000 accomplished Head Inspections, and we’ve linked a whole lot of hundreds of males with psychological well being assets – we’re additionally keenly conscious that the challenges round males’s psychological well being persist.
Of their 2025 report on The State of American Males, the Equimundo:
Middle for Masculinities and Social Justice reveals the totally different ways in which many males proceed to wrestle in silence:
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86% of males consider the highest trait associated to being a person is “being a supplier”
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Males who face monetary instability are 16x extra more likely to have suicidal ideas.
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71% of males consider they will have their status destroyed in the event that they converse their thoughts.
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65% of males consider that “nobody actually cares if males are okay.”
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53% of males consider that “nobody actually is aware of” them
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48% of males consider that it’s higher in the event that they cover components of themselves.
Couple these statistics with rising tensions attributable to conflicting ideological viewpoints on how a person “ought to” be, and we’re left with many males feeling like they lack a transparent path ahead to get assist. This lack of locations for males to attach with care, and one another, permits the dangerous stigma to persist, and it additionally creates a void in with the ability to successfully join males to the care they want previous to discovering themselves in a disaster.
The problem in addressing stigma and the damaging notion of masculinity is providing a life raft to males in a approach that doesn’t come throughout as belittling or speaking all the way down to them. The Man Remedy perspective is that psychological well being isn’t taboo, shouldn’t be ignored, and with the fitting messaging and instruments, we are able to smash by the stigma to construct males up of their each day lives.
How we are able to break stigma, and really help males, is by catching them upstream with instruments that resonate and assist them navigate what they’re experiencing. Basic to that is serving to males perceive that psychological well being doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Emotional well being, bodily well being, religious well being, relational well being all performs a task in a single’s means to take care of themself and domesticate a wholesome life-style.
A key a part of this psychoeducation for Man Remedy comes by our Gentlemental Well being assets on subjects like anger, nervousness, melancholy, and extra. Because it goes, you can’t handle a factor you don’t perceive, and so constructing out instructional assets for males will help them study what they’re going by, search for warning indicators, create actionable plans to deal with these issues, and can finally assist them construct a more healthy mindset and examine of themselves. It’s a no-B.S. strategy to psychological well being geared toward driving motion and serving to males thrive.
3. Trying to the Way forward for Man Remedy®
Lastly, as any craftsman is aware of, a software is just pretty much as good because the one who makes use of it. What makes Man Remedy profitable, and finally capable of ship real-world change for males, are our companions and customers who leverage the marketing campaign for help. Man Remedy started as a grassroots effort to scale back suicide and enhance psychological well being for males on the native degree, and it has grown a global viewers due to its distinctive means to resonate with males and plug into public well being initiatives.
In 2021, the outcomes of a four-year, $1.2 million CDC-funded examine confirmed that Man Remedy, in addition to broader public well being initiatives concentrating on males, are profitable in participating males wherever and at any time when they may want assist in on-line screening and referrals to assets with on-line packages similar to Man Remedy. This analysis, led by Dr. Jodi J. Frey and her group at College of Maryland, College of Social Work by her Middle for Behavioral Well being and Effectively-Being Analysis (BHWell) discovered that males within the examine who used Man Remedy reported much less melancholy and suicidal ideation over a three-month time interval, decreased stigma towards psychological well being, and elevated intentions to hunt remedy.
Actually, males who used Man Remedy, when put next with the comparability group in the examine who solely acquired on-line melancholy and suicide screening with assets, have been statistically extra more likely to interact in formal help-seeking behaviors within the three-month time interval after utilizing Man Remedy. This included actions similar to making an appointment with a psychological well being counselor, speaking to their major care physician about melancholy and suicide, and collaborating in knowledgeable on-line help group. Following this seminal examine of Man Remedy, Dr. Frey’s analysis in Michigan and Ohio continues to help constructive outcomes from Man Remedy, demonstrating that the net program shouldn’t be solely reaching males at best threat, however serving to them enhance their psychological well being and well-being.
Along with psychological well being outcomes described above, our group works intently with neighborhood organizations inside the two states to help a state-wide public well being marketing campaign for males’s suicide prevention, centered round using Man Remedy. Thus far, we now have over 750 neighborhood companions in Michigan, and in simply 1.5 years of launching the newer marketing campaign in Ohio, we now have 362 neighborhood companions. These companions use Man Remedy as a software of their broader work to forestall suicide, and they’re additionally capable of entry county-level information inside just a few days from the analysis group to assist drive their prevention efforts, along with demonstrating outcomes of engagement and use of the 988 Disaster Line inside their counties.
The impression of community-research partnerships like those between Man Remedy, Dr. Frey and her group, and leaders inside Michigan and Ohio can’t be overstated. In Ohio, our funder and lead companion is the Ohio Suicide Prevention Basis. Within the brief time that the analysis and neighborhood companions have been working collectively, they’ve seen important impacts in reaching males in danger for suicide throughout Ohio. On account of our companions’ efforts to share Man Remedy info and promotional supplies, the Man Remedy web site noticed practically 80,000 distinctive customers, and over 1.2 million web page visits, with customers spending a mean of over two minutes per session (which is above trade requirements). The 18-Level Head Inspection (Man Remedy’s on-line threat evaluation) additionally proved extremely participating, with 62% of all web site guests finishing the net evaluation. Importantly, over 3,200 assets have been accessed, and 462 disaster actions have been taken whereas on the Man Remedy web site — underscoring the platform’s function in connecting males to crucial psychological well being help.
Our 13-year historical past of partnering to deal with the systemic challenges and distinctive obstacles that discourage males from searching for care have taught us that supporting males’s psychological well being is a group sport and males mustn’t really feel that they need to go at their issues alone. Our group stays dedicated to making sure that males throughout lived experiences have a secure, confidential place to show to pop the hood on their psychological well being, whereas additionally supporting our broader communities with a turnkey answer that reveals addressing psychological well being is the manliest factor a person can do.
As a clever, mustachioed therapist as soon as mentioned, “You’ll be able to’t repair your psychological well being with duct tape.”
Whereas the bootstrap mentality can go a good distance, it has a ceiling. Now, greater than ever, males want a spot to show to study, and handle, life’s challenges. So, once you want a pork shoulder to cry on, there’s Man Remedy. It’s remedy, the best way a person does it.