Awareness months aren’t as effective as they used to be, are they?
We’ve got so many of them now and, yes, they’re all important and they all matter. It’s just really easy now for people to ignore them if they want to.
Well, November is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s also – thanks to two determined lads in Australia who took it from a joke one year to a charity drive the next, and the support team that’s built up to make it a global charity success since – Movember, the month where the moustache is king.
The focus for Movember has always been on men’s health, starting out with prostate cancer and adding new areas as the movement has built. It’s safe to say the biggest focus after cancer is mental health.
A lot’s been written about how men manage their mental health and the ways we don’t. I could talk about that but honestly, the people at Priory have a great breakdown of why we so often don’t talk about this here – and they’re the experts.
Instead, let me tell you what it means to me.
Sadly, not so long ago, I lost one of my best friends to his own struggles with mental health. It’s a double shock when that happens – not just the grief but the moment where you wonder if you could have helped if you’d known.
I’ve had my own battles with mental health, and I know that I can expect to have more as I go through life. Every time I do, I’m a little bit more experienced and a little bit better armed for dealing with these times.
I’ve been working on those tools for years – I know a lot about what to expect when things are rough. This month I’ve jumped on board with the Movember movement to help raise funds for organisations that help people who haven’t got that experience and that edge, as well as anyone who’s facing challenges they don’t know how to deal with.
This isn’t a typical blog for IT Works Health, but it’s an important topic and one I feel strongly about. I just want to do my part, no matter how big or small the results. If you want to support me in this, you can donate here.
