Movember rips off men's health dollars

The major push now is on "Mental Health & Suicide Prevention" – see the grey line – which has shifted from 18% to 37% of Movember's spend - $13.5 to $34.4 million.

Nothing wrong with that, you might say. Yes, naturally we are applauding Movember's increasing interest in male suicide, which surely is the most critical of all the health issues. Given that our suicide prevention bodies are still callously ignoring men, which should be their major target group, this is a real breakthrough.

This is particularly important given the hostility of the anti-male Albanese government to spending money on men's health. I wrote recently about how they brought together all the key men's groups prior to the last budget, seeking funding strategies for men's health. They then turned around and announced $160 million for women's health and zero for men in the budget.

So it's great that we have Movember, which had an annual income in 2023-24 of $137 million, willing to throw money around on mental health and suicide.

But the problem with Movember's approach to this territory is how they spend it.

One of the key initiatives Movember is supporting – to the tune of $2.35 million - is the WayBack Suicide Prevention Service, run by Beyond Blue, a charity tackling depression. What's disappointing is that while 3 in 4 suicides involve men, 60% of the people helped by WayBack are women. That's to be expected, say the health bureaucrats because WayBack aims to reduce the likelihood of suicide - or a further attempt, for people who have made a previous suicide attempt – and women make more unsuccessful attempts than men.

Ok then. So Movember discovers the program they are funding to reduce MALE suicide isn't actually helping all that many men because males are more likely to be successful when they try to end their lives.

You might have thought that someone in Movember would have had the bright idea to look at the factors triggering male suicide and see if there is some way of intervening to actually reduce the risk? Look at the efforts made in our society to support women who are vulnerable to post-partum depression, reducing risk of depression and suicide during that period.

When it comes to male suicide, we have solid data showing relationship breakdown is critical - coroner's report data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that among men 25-44, the biggest cause of suicide is now "problems in spousal relationship circumstances".

It is possible to support these men and prevent them taking their lives. That's what Parents Beyond Breakup (PBB) has been doing for decades. And it works. Here's a recent video featuring CEO Pete Nicholls explaining the results of a recent survey they conducted with 500 of their clients showing 66% of men surveyed reported suicidal thoughts when they reached out for help from PBB which reduced to 10% after receiving support.

These are men helping men. The PBB support groups and help lines are run by men who have been through similar ordeals to the men who seek help – parental alienation and the loss of their children, false allegations, loss of home and assets, massive legal costs, homelessness. The organisation is now registered as a suicide prevention charity – Keeping parents alive and in their kids' lives – and is one of the few that appears to be actually achieving that, for men.

But the sisterhood from Movember aren't going to get down into the gutter dealing with the real life experiences of broken men under attack in the Family Court. There's never any mention of any of these issues in all their glossy publications. They are determined to push suicide as a mental health problem rather than a response to situational distress – as is true of most of the organisations currently receiving funding aimed at male suicide prevention.