Men account for seven of the nine daily suicides in Australia.Credit: Getty Images
But first,a portrait of pain for millions of men,their partners and their families:men die six years younger on average than women – at 79 versus 85;men are more likely to die by cancer than women,particularly from bowel,lung and liver cancer;and men account for more than 90 per cent of workplace deaths.
Perhaps the saddest statistic comes from the new data on male suicide in Australia. According to government figures released last month,we reached the highest ever number of male suicides in our history in pre-COVID 2019. Of the 3318 deaths by suicide,2502 were males and 816 were females. Now,seven of nine daily suicides in Australia are men – more than 75 per cent.
This week it was encouraging to hear the Prime Minister call out the tragic and male-specific aspects of suicide when he released two significant and positive reports:the Productivity Commission on mental health and the interim advice of the new national suicide prevention adviser,Christine Morgan. It was unprecedented. Morgan's report said Australia needed specific strategies to target suicide among men.
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And yet Australia has a"bloke blindspot"when it comes to this tragedy. The vast majority of formal and funded programs are not made with men in mind. Current policies,such as the 5th National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan,fail to address the very specific challenge as it applies to men. They use techniques,language and approaches that have largely not included men in designing and delivering their own help.
For instance,many of the better known initiatives pose the male-unfriendly and emotionally packed question:"What are you feeling?"Whereas we know men broadly respond to:"What’s going on?"
We know that male suicide has specific dimensions. About half are linked with relationship issues,one in six to money concerns and one in 10 to unemployment.
It seems that in our very necessary quest to be inclusive of at-risk groups,such as Indigenous people,the LGBTQI communities and young women,for whom suicide attempts are increasing – and we absolutely must do this to save lives – we have somehow excluded the group that remains most at risk:men. Perhaps it’s so obvious it gets overlooked.