An online ‘Mental Health Check-In’ tool has been launched by Foothold, the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Benevolent Fund, aimed at enhancing mental health support within the engineering community.
Developed in partnership with mental health specialist Rightsteps, it enables users to assess their current emotional state through clinically validated questions and provides a customised mental health score, along with expert advice on accessing further support.
It is confidential and accessible 24/7, without the need for personal identifying details. The tool can be found on the Foothold website at https://www.myfoothold.org/
Male health, especially male mental health, was the focus of a webinar organised by the ILP’s Women Lighting Professionals last month.
The webinar entitled, ‘More than Movember’, was a deep dive into male health issues and was held on 19 November to coincide with International Men’s Day. ‘Movember’ referred to the longstanding male health awareness-raising activities that are held during November by the charity Movember.
It brought together oncology advanced nurse practitioner and urological specialist Sinéad Collins, from the charity Orchid Fighting Male Cancer, who ran through the warning signs and awareness around three male-specific cancers: prostate, testicular and penile.
Jaimee Boutcher-Hann, from WSP, then discussed the importance of creating healthy and safe spaces for all genders, men and women, and the importance of taking a gender-sensitive design approach.
The webinar then concluded with lighting projects manager Gary Thorne, who spoke about male mental health and suicide, building on the article he wrote for Lighting Journal in the summer (‘We need to talk’, July-August 2024, vol 89 no 7).
In particular, Thorne focused on the need – the imperative – for men to be more prepared to open up and talk about their feelings, how they’re feeling and how they’re coping (or not). That, essentially, we need to be talking about the ‘men’ in mental health.
Separately, the government has announced it will develop a men’s health strategy for England.
This will be focused on heart disease and strokes, prostate and testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention and is expected to be published next year.
While there has been a Women’s Health Strategy for England in place since 2022, there has up to now been no equivalent for men’s health.
Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting pledged the strategy will form a key part of the government’s ’10 Year Health Plan to fix the NHS’.
A call for evidence will seek views on what is working and what more needs to be done to close the life expectancy gap between men and women, Streeting added.
• The full webinar WLP is available to watch on demand on the ILP website, at https://theilp.org.uk/the-wlp-gathers-for-its-first-wlp-more-than-movember-webinar-for-international-mens-day/
Image: Pexels
