Is the health system failing men? (Sydney Morning Herald)

Australian males die, on average, five years earlier than women. Four experts discuss why this longevity gap is so difficult to bridge.

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Online study looking at Self and Health Behaviours

You are invited to participate in an online study looking at Self and Health Behaviours. This project, conducted as part of a PhD in psychology at the Australian National University, is investigating how people understand themselves, and how this relates to their health attitudes and the things they do.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME. Participation involves answering some questions about yourself, your attitudes and your behaviours. It's completely anonymous and voluntary. It takes about 20 minutes to complete the study. If you would like to participate in this study, please follow this link: https://anupsych.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_8xhKKcxHqlBBSTi . If you would like more information, please contact tegan.cruwys@anu.edu.au.

Friends, government turn blind eye to male victims: report

The WA Government must establish specific services to support male victims of domestic abuse and invest in better training to help health and welfare workers identify abused men, according to the Men’s Advisory Network (MAN). The call follows the launch today of a ground-breaking report, Intimate Partner Abuse of Men, by researchers from Edith Cowan University’s psychology department.

According to the report, embarrassment, the disbelief of friends and colleagues, and social welfare and justice systems that assumed men were the abusers were among the reasons many men did not report abuse. Even if they were believed, male victims had nowhere to go for appropriate support and counselling as existing services were set up to cater for female victims of male abuse. MAN executive officer Gary Bryant said the community could not go on turning a blind eye to male victims of domestic abuse.

The full report is available on the MAN website http://www.man.org.au.

Male victims of domestic violence need campaigns and services: report

A groundbreaking report from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has found that male victims of domestic violence can suffer from a unique form of legal/administrative abuse previously unidentified in research, as well as experiencing most of the same impacts as female victims.

The Intimate Partner Abuse of Men report, to be launched this morning in Perth, found that “Male victims of intimate partner abuse and their children suffer a range of consequences, such as psychological distress (including disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders), suicidal ideation, impaired self-concept and loss of work.”

It found that male victims are often reluctant to disclose their experience of abuse or seek help because of their sometimes justified fears that they will not be believed, that they will not be assisted or will instead be blamed for the abuse.

The study recommends that government-funded public campaigns be conducted to raise awareness of domestic violence against men; that consideration should be given to providing publicly-funded services specifically for male victims; and that workers in health and welfare fields should be provided with training to assist them to recognise and respond effectively to male victims of domestic violence.