Strategies for effective implementation and scale-up of a multi-level co-designed men's health initiative “Sheds for Life” in Irish Men's Sheds

_reficio_ · 2022-11-04T16:43:38+00:00

New paper from men's health promotion researchers in Ireland has a mix of frustrating and interesting findings.

The frustrating parts are that research published in 2022 is at the point where this is deemed a contribution:

a key requirement for service provider organizations to work with Sheds was that they understood the ethos and Shed environment.

The researchers are surprised that men, especially socially disadvantaged men, who feel rejected by current healthcare system are skeptical of people from said healthcare system who enter one of the few spaces where they've built community. Shocking.

This highlights the other frustration I had throughout the article. The authors acknowledge men have built community in sheds, yet continue to hold a 'we know best' attitude. They make references to co-design and partnership, yet these are one-directional. There's no comment about how men engaged in the "co-design" processes. There's also a victory lap at the end where she talks about how she "spent hundreds of hours within Sheds" and was "a key advisor within the SFL team." She touches on how this might impact research but doesn't quite join the dots on how this will impact scalability and sustainability.

The interesting pieces are that they show that men do care about their health, they do want to improve their health and quality of life, and they do want help. That's likely not surprising to readers on this sub, but it is progress from a female researcher in the world of men's health promotion. I hope the next step is to show that it's not just health promotion that requires nuanced approaches, but also engagement and delivery within healthcare systems.

Title	Strategies for effective implementation and scale-up of a multi-level co-designed men's health initiative “Sheds for Life” in Irish Men's Sheds
Author	_reficio_
Upvotes	18
Comments	1
Date	November 4, 2022 4:20 PM UTC (3 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/ym398a/strategies_for_effective_implementation_and/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/strategies-for-effective-implementation-and-scale.1138128 https://theredarchive.com/post/1138128

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