Men’s Health Week & Why Mateship is So Important
G’day everyone, Sam here. Welcome to the June edition of the CCK newsletter.
Back in November 2016 I started a movement with the intention of turning around men’s mental health stats, particularly in Australia. The group was aptly named ‘Grab Life By The Balls’.
Grab Life By The Balls is now a registered charity and our Wingmen hold events across Australia in 13 different locations, with a few more in the works including overseas.
Men’s health week is held in June. This year it is running from the 15th – 21st of June.
In this article we are going to go through:
- Why men’s health is such a big issue
- Men’s health statistics in Australia
- Why mateship is important
- Some tips on accessing mateship at this time
Why is men’s health such a big issue?
‘Australia is one of the world’s healthiest societies, yet our men and boys die younger; experience more disease and have less access to support services than women and girls.”
– Australian Men’s Health Forum www.amhf.org.au/
There is a whole stack of reasons as to why men’s health is not where it should be. There’s also plenty of solutions to these reasons.
One of many solutions is improving social connection for men, aka, mateship.
According to Professor John MacDonald, from the University of Western Sydney, the best thing a man can do for his health and wellbeing is to have three close mates.
Why mateship is important?
There’s some pretty startling evidence around how bad loneliness can be to anyone’s health (male or female, young or old). The technical term for loneliness is social isolation…not the ‘social isolation’ we have come to know over the last couple of months.
Social isolation is as bad or worse to your health than obesity and is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day! How’s that for a stat! On the flip side, mateship (technical term: social connection) is great for your health. Strong social connection is linked to:
- Better quality of life
- More satisfied life
- 50% increased longevity
- Strengthens our immune system
How to get your dose of mateship at this time
At the time of writing this, ‘normal’ forms of social connection are still on hold. But there are plenty of ways to stay connected at this time
Give ya mate a call. Seems pretty simple but when was the last time you gave one of your mates a call to have a chat? You may need to arrange this in advance given other commitments we all have. I’ve been chatting to my mates in the car any chance I get (on speaker phone of course).
Virtual catch up with a video chat. There’s all sorts of ways to video call – all you need is a smart phone or a computer. Its pretty easy to do. We arranged to catch up with some friends of ours, we were sitting around a fire in Melbourne enjoying a glass of red and they were sitting on their lounge in Brissie…a little different to the norm but still good to catch up. If all else fails get on Google and ask how to video chat, you’ll find heaps of info and apps to use.
Grab Life By The Balls virtual catch up.
For more details check out our website: www.grablifebytheballs.com.au
Follow our Facebook page: facebook.com/grablifebytheballsmovement
Other resources:
To find out more about men’s health week: www.menshealthweek.org.au
Other virtual events for men: /www.facebook.com/menshealthtv
