Samaritan Research on Male suicide in the UK

iainmf · 2017-06-05T10:42:17+00:00

Thanks for this.

Lot's of good stuff, but the 'toxic masculinity' poison is seeping in.

Masculinity – the way men are brought up to behave and the roles, attributes and behaviours that society expects of them – contributes to suicide in men. Men compare themselves against a masculine ‘gold standard’ which prizes power, control and invincibility. When men believe they are not meeting this standard, they feel a sense of shame and defeat. Having a job and being able to provide for your family is central to ‘being a man’, particularly for working class men. Masculinity is associated with control, but when men are depressed or in crisis, they can feel out of control. This can propel some men towards suicidal behaviour as a way of regaining control. Men are more likely to use drugs or alcohol in response to distress.

Imnotmrabut · 2017-06-05T13:35:56+00:00

The Samaritans is Unfortunately still a Gynocentric Organisation, though it has improved somewhat with the departure of Catherine Johnstone as CEO and the arrival of Ruth Sutherland who has some Real Experience outside the Bubbles and Echo-Chamber of The Charitable Sector.

Ruth Sutherland was even willing to slap down students who were Addicted to Gynocentrism - "This House Believes Masculinity Is Damaging to Everyone | Cambridge Union".

However, the Samaritans is still Overtly Gynocentric - in crisis, haemorrhaging volunteers - using crap systems that cause calls to be dropped, for people to not be able to hear each other - and they have middle management who love a problem which gives the job security, a job title and pay packet. They are terrible at change and do not want solutions to problems as that removes the excuses and even shows up those who are unable and unwilling to change even if that costs lives.

It is worth remembering that the man who founded Samaritans Chad Varah, CH, CBE divorced himself from the Samaritans as a result of it shifting from a Help Service to a Proselytising, Politically Correct, Feminist, Socially Engineering One. Just as many organisations keep a public face for equality, behind closed doors they are biased, sexist and all too often Misandricly Feminist.

The only part of that report that has any value is on page 28 which reads:

Practice needs to move from ‘blaming men for not being like women’, to removing the barriers to men’s engagement with projects and services, and designing/adapting interventions to be attractive to them and effective for them.

Given that this has been known by Samaritans since at least 2012 it is beyond worrying that so many within Samaritans still believe in the Feminist Vanilla/Tabula Rasa Meme of One Size Fits All and men are broken women.

I've spoken to many male Samaritan Volunteers who openly acknowledge that they ignore the training they have received concerning man as they are not willing to abuse callers by treating them as deficient women or even the cause of their own damage for just being men.

What is even more worrying is that when you talk to Samaritan Volunteers - the ones who man the phones - they report not having received any training on gender differences in emotional life, communication or needs - only that men commit suicide more often. They also report having been immersed in the old "Canard" of men won't kill themselves if they just behave more like women and talk all about their Feelz!

If the Samaritans research says one thing and they, as an organisation, do the opposite it shows that there is an internal disconnect which in this case shows the Samaritans to be manifestly Misandric and a Toxic place for males to seek help.

The Stark Gendered Differences in communication with Women Talking about Feelz and Men Talking about Action and how to solve problems leads to the ridiculous and abusive situation where men phoning the Samarians are told that unless they talk as demanded by the Samaritan about feelings and not about action the call will be terminated.

They phone for support and get nothing but coercive and controlling abuse. Some who are Men's Rights advocates report being called sexist, misogynistic and even sex offenders when they have highlighted sexism against men

That this controlling, coercive and abusive pattern originates from predominantly female Samaritans is of zero surprise.

Maybe one day the Samaritans will do as they say - but until then do nat take them at face value and handle with long tongs and a tsunami of scepticism.

Imnotmrabut · 2017-06-05T14:04:54+00:00

If you are looking for more balanced and gender relevant research on Men and Suicide I advise using the following:

Robertson, S., A. Bagnall, and M. Walker. "Evidence for a gender-based approach to mental health programmes: Identifying the key considerations associated with “being male”." (2015) - Movember Foundation.
The aim of the evidence check was to find out what the evidence base is relevant to testing the proposal that “being male” is a key consideration for understanding mental health outcomes and service development i.e. that a gender-based approach to mental health programmes is defensible, especially for prevention, early intervention and stigma reduction.
KEY FINDINGS
• It is important that programmes take a gender-based approach to working with men because there is a strong relationship between adherence to traditional masculinity and poorer mental health help-seeking, higher levels of mental health stigma, suicide attempts and body image concerns
• Programmes should pay particular attention to approaches that help men to become emotionally expressive because difficulty in expressing emotions is the element of masculinity most linked to negative mental health help-seeking, endorsement of mental health stigma and likelihood of suicide. (This holds true amongst different groups of men, including ethnic groups of men and gay men, where discrimination may increase the impact of these negative aspects)
• Programmes should also pay attention to approaches that help men develop or sustain feelings of self-esteem, control and responsibility (for example around work and family) as these are linked to more preventative self-care behaviours and to positive coping with stressful life events
• Programmes should ensure they view men as positive assets and use male positive approaches (e.g. presenting help-seeking as ‘rational’ and as a strength) and language (e.g. using ‘regaining control’ rather than ‘help-seeking’) as this helps engage and sustain involvement in interventions (though caution should also be taken that these approaches don’t act to reinforce negative traditional male views)
• Part of using male positive approaches includes involving men in ‘doing’, in action-based approaches, especially doing traditionally male activities. Such approaches act to create a safe space that generates trust and thus facilitates talking and ‘opening-up’ emotionally.
Ref Men's Sheds - "Men Don't Talk Face To Face, They Talk Shoulder To Shoulder".
• Furthermore, such action-based interventions also act to facilitate positive male social engagement which affects, and is affected by, the ability to be emotionally open and helps improve self-esteem through feelings of enjoyment and having a valued male identity

double-happiness · 2017-06-05T17:07:12+00:00

Men are much less likely than women to have a positive view of counselling or therapy. However, both men and women make use of these services at times of crisis.

Gives the lie to this victim-blaming concept that 'men don't seek help / make use of services'.

Unemployment in the UK is higher among men than women. This is related to the decline of predominantly male types of employment, such as manufacturing. Men have also been affected by the general trend towards irregular work patterns, insecure or temporary work and self-employment, and the current recession.

No mention of the massive disparity in help to get people into occupations that people of their gender don't often do though.

Title	Samaritan Research on Male suicide in the UK
Author	Mathysseus
Upvotes	19
Comments	42
Date	June 5, 2017 9:38 AM UTC (9 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/6fd5vb/samaritan_research_on_male_suicide_in_the_uk/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/samaritan-research-on-male-suicide-in-the-uk.921178 https://theredarchive.com/post/921178

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