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Men should be strong.
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Women should be flexible.
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30 Ways to Promote Men's Health
by Robert C. Fellows, MTS
Copyright © 2004 Work and Wellness. All rights reserved.
The 30 Ways
1. Give away a “Men’s Health Tool Kit.” Melanie Walloch submits this successful idea created by West Allis Memorial Hospital in Wisconsin. The tool kit can contain such items as:
An actual tool with the sponsor’s logo
Bandaid holder with sponsor’s logo
Heart stress ball
Stress testing card
Membership passes to the YMCA and local athletic club
Personal health guide
Testicular self-exam card
Medication card and fact sheet
Sunscreen sample & self-exam card
Radon screening kit coupon
Eat smart with fruits and vegetables book
Cancer facts for men
Brochures:
Choices for good health
Colorectal cancer
Erectile dysfunction
Tobacco cessation
Hypertension and stroke
2. Check out the “Men’s Tuneup” sponsored by Pfizer.
3. Invite men to a session on taking care of their family’s health.
4. Have a retreat for men instead of a “day” or “fair.”
5. Start a men’s support group.
6. Plan a whole weekend away for men.
7. Offer yoga for men only. Try calling it “Yoga Stretch for Men.”
8. Bring in a sports figure.
9. Get men to tell their personal stories. This is the real function that sports figures play.
10. Go to them. Have the event at their workplace or recreation sites.
11. Offer a safety program at their worksite.
12. Offer a hunting safety program before hunting season, and include other health tips.
13. Offer a fly fishing workshop. Include safety and wellness.
14. Teach other job-related and hobby-related skills. Include a wellness perspective.
15. Offer a seminar on how to quit smoking. Memorial Hospital and Wellspan in York, Pennsylvania titled theirs “No More Butts” and it drew hundreds of people!
16. Offer tips on selecting proper running shoes and other athletic equipment.
17. Make the theme of your event golf. Offer a golf swing assessment.
18. Advertise benefits, not features.
19. Try the spa concept. However, we’ve found that most men won’t get in line for public massages (too personal), but they’ll sign up for haircuts and manicures!
20. If you have a health fair for men, don’t call it a “fair.” Even “Men’s Health Challenge” is better. And don’t emphasize the screenings. Some men avoid screenings because of the repercussions on their job of a bad result.
21. Draw on the interest some men have in the human potential movement. Make the event about self-improvement and peak performance.
22. Offer an anger management class. Some men are referred to such a class, and they might as well get it with a wellness perspective.
23. Offer a conflict resolution seminar.
24. Make the leadership of any men’s health event informal, or simply have men tell their personal stories. Avoid the “teacher” model so prevalent in health education.
25. The Arthritis Foundation in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania drew some men, but more importantly, sold out way in advance their 250 seat maximum for a day that included lunch and cost $10. How? They called it “Celebrate Women - Celebrate Life!” hired an entertaining male keynote speaker, and in small print added “Men are welcome too. Bring the men in your family.” The women are usually the health care decision makers for the family, and even the women who didn’t bring their men will take the information back to them.
26. Hand out a men’s health manual such as “How to Keep Your Body Running” offered by Work and Wellness. (Give a call or send an e-mail to ask for rights. Click here to see an abbreviated version of the manual.) Men respond to the automobile maintenance manual format.
27. In your graphics and communications, remember that generally men will pick up and read graphs, charts, bullet points, and brief text that highlights benefits rather than long pretty prose.
28. Include men from your target group in planning your event.
29. Include food in the event.
30. MAKE IT FUN!
Other Ideas
In the “Promoting Men’s Health” workshop at the National Wellness Conference this year, over 60 participants (many of them health care professionals drawing on their successes and failures) did some sharing to come up with most of the ideas listed above. We also brainstormed two other topics discussed below.
While the two leading causes of death for men are heart disease and cancer, when we think of men’s health, we also need to take into account health issues that are particular or common to men such as:
Prostate
Testicular
Erectile Dysfunction
Single Parent Dads
Anger Management
Date Rape
Hair Loss
Sports Issues
Injuries
We also need to think about the health factors that are not killing men, but are causing stress for them while they’re alive, such as:
Relationships
Financial
Isolation
Depression
Substance Abuse
The Red Sox
Anger
Gender/Role Confusion
Career
Downsizing
Body Image
Mid-Life
Time Management
Cultural
Guilt
Talking to Teens
Frustration
Comments on Promoting Men’s Health
In July, 2004, searching on the internet for “Men’s Wellness Day” vs. “Women’s Wellness Day,” the search engine Google found 170 references for women and only 7 for men. We found 73 references for “Women’s Wellness Fair” and 0 references for “Men’s Wellness Fair.” “Men’s Health” drew about 3 million references; “Women’s Health” about 4 million. “Men’s Wellness” to “Women’s Wellness”: 3,000 to 15,000.
There are a number of serious men’s health issues that need more public education. Health promoters can help by working together to offer programs that appeal to men.
The week in June leading up to and including Father’s Day has been designated National Men’s Health Week. For more information, check out this web site:
www.menshealthweek.org
Health fairs for men might look quite different than those for women. While a “Women’s Wellness Day” will draw hundreds of participants, men will not be naturally drawn in the same way to a “Men’s Wellness Day,” or a “Men’s Health Fair.” Successful educational events for men might look more like a “Men’s Retreat” (similar to the executive leadership retreat model), “A Gathering of Men” (similar to human potential events), a “Men’s Group” (similar to the support group model), or even something like a “Warrior Weekend” (drawing on the human potential field).
Another way to approach this is to offer events that deal with specific issues that tend to interest men. We have drawn a good percentage of men to sessions on smoking cessation. Other possibilities include financial wellness, Weight Watchers for men only, 12-Step Programs for men only, anger management (since some men are referred to this anyway), relationship counseling, couples and divorce counseling (both would tend to draw 50% men), and parenting for single parents.
We can look beyond the stereotypical “Analyze Your Golf Swing,” “Free PSA Test,” “Free Cholesterol Check,” “Free Digital Rectal Exam” (not a big natural draw), or personal appearance by a professional athlete—even though each of those will draw men of certain profiles in the right settings.
For more tips on health promotion events, check out the essay titled “How to Promote Successful Wellness Events” on this web site.
For more information on speakers, call:
800-543-0583
Men’s Groups
In 1973, when the Boston Women’s Health Collective was writing Our Bodies, Our Selves, they would hold special workshops only for women at a human potential conference in Massachusetts called the Northfield Conference. The men would play frisbee on the lawn and tell jokes during the “Women’s Group” sessions. We calculated that the women were talking about us, and wondered what they were saying.
The second year this happened, a couple of us decided to have a “Men’s Group” while the women were having their session...just to show them! We had never heard of a men’s group, but it just seemed that we should have our position heard—if only to ourselves.
At first, we talked about the women (well, we figured they were talking about us, after all) and continued to tell jokes. It took several days of meeting before we realized we had “issues” and that we could help each other. “Men’s Groups” were born this way all over the United States—at least on both coasts and in university towns like Madison, Wisconsin.
We had already learned the principles of Active Listening and “I” statements from training we had received as small group leaders when both genders were present. We naturally used the same techniques. We were not accustomed to 12-Step programs and the rules of their group work, so we made it up as we went along. I have noticed five “C’s” that seem central to this kind of group work. You can refer to these observations if you are leading groups, or if you are judging the methods of a group in which you are a participant.
The guiding principles we are suggesting are as follows:
Consensus: It’s important that the group attempt to come to consensus in it’s process, so that members are personally invested in group decisions that are made. Also, the process is always important. Facilitators do not simply lay down laws to “save time” and get to the real work. The process of coming to consensus is the real work.
Co-facilitators: It’s best if there are two co-facilitators. One can get involved in his own issues during a particular conversation, and then no one is facilitating unless there are two. Also, they are facilitators, not leaders.
Confidentiality: The co-facilitators should not simply say that whatever is said in the group stays there. They should instead bring up the issue of confidentiality and ask the group what it wants to decide about that. Then if the group decides by consensus that it wants confidentiality maintained to help build trust, the members have buy-in. If it’s simply a law, members don’t feel obligated to follow it. The co-facilitators need to be prepared for the group to decide they do not need confidentiality, and respect that decision too.
Commitment: This is another issue that the co-facilitators should bring up rather than expect or demand. If a member stops showing up, do we want to call them or go to their room and wake then up? Or is it OK for members to drift away?
Check-in: On any given day, it might not be immediately clear who has issues that really need to be dealt with—not even to those with the issues—so it’s important to start with a brief check-in around the circle to see how everyone is doing. Then you’ll know who needs more time.
Your comments
If you've read this far, you probably have some valuable comments or additions to this effort. Please feel free to send an e-mail to info@workandwellness.com. Thanks and best wishes in your planning. |
