Half as many men as women are diagnosed with depression but suicide rates for men are four times that of women in Western countries.
That’s one of the reasons why Movember Canada, part of the global Movember Foundation that’s committed to improving men’s health, added mental health as well as testicular cancer to its original focus of prostate cancer in 2012.
It’s also why University of B.C. professor John Oliffe and the Men’s Depression & Suicide Network received $2.95 million from Movember last October for five projects across the country that focus on men’s depression and suicide.
Oliffe, a professor in the School of Nursing at UBC, says some researchers hypothesize clinicians miss depression in men.
“Men oftentimes will exhibit aggression, irritability, substance overuse,” he said. “And nowhere on screenings for depression in the generic tools that we use do we actually interrogate any of those characteristics that I just mentioned.”
Pete Bombaci, director of Movember Canada, says men under pressure tend to isolate, whereas women are more likely to seek support and to see doctors more regularly.
“A lot of men go through their twenties and thirties and never see a doctor, you know, until they have a limb hanging off,” Bombaci said.
He wants men to register for Movember to raise awareness about health issues that affect them.
Men are to put the “mo” in November by rejecting their razors for the month and corralling their family, friends and co-workers to sponsor the growth of their moustaches. Money raised goes to Prostate Cancer Canada foundation and Movember Foundation programs.
“It’s those not-so-brilliant moments [with our budding moustaches] that bring us together as a community,” Bombaci said.
Every year, men who’ve dealt with mental illness or prostate or testicular cancer tell him conversations nurtured by Movember have helped them feel less isolated and more comfortable in their skin, according to Bombaci.
He urges women to encourage the men in their life to participate and to tell them not worry about potentially unappealing scraggly patches of facial hair.
Movember has raised $574 million globally since it started in 2003 and $151.6 million in Canada since it spread here in 2007.
“The Movember funding is unprecedented,” Oliffe said. “There’s never been this kind of energy for men’s mental health and I think it’s incredibly important.”
He’ll be cultivating a moustache next month.
“If my testosterone or lack thereof cooperates, it’ll be something to behold,” Oliffe said. “I’m thinking it could be an awkward month.”
For more information about the projects the Men’s Depression and Suicide Network are running, see mdsnet.ubc.ca. The network is to launch an online self-help kiosk for men dealing with depression in the first quarter of 2015. For more information on Movember, see ca.movember.com.
crossi@vancourier.com
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