Can we get healthier outcomes from Aussie men?

Auto manufacture and auto retailing are two prime examples of male-heavy occupations. In the USA and Australia, the auto  industry is in crisis after years of clinging to outmoded, gas-guzzling four-wheel drives. Called in Sydney “Balmain bulldozers”, these are environmentally unsound and hazardous for all who are hit by them. Do we need them on our roads in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane?

During a recession, men with poor general education are hit hardest because they have little capacity to survive repeated rejection. Men with poor literacy and computer skills have limited job futures. Guys with poor ability to communicate and work with others different from themselves (such as women, gays, and foreign-born workers) may be the worst off of all.

All of this makes survival  for men harder, especially men stuck in old-fashioned forms of masculinity: the “she’ll be right, mate” style, perhaps. Those who are mentally younger, more adaptable, and more literate, seem more resilient.

Why men get poorer health outcomes

This brings us to another big issue. A man’s understanding of “what a man does” of course affects his health. If men must always be strong, then it’s harder for him to admit he’s unwell. The paper says:

Men’s consultations tend to be more superficial, shorter and occur later in the disease process. Men are reluctant to engage in preventative health consultations (check-ups) during their early and middle years. (p.9)

Let’s imagine that the GP is a man (many are; not all) A man finds it difficult to admit weakness to another man. There’s no use pretending I am better than anyone else! I talk to the GP about a sore toe and then - as if it’s an afterthought - out comes my concern about my prostate or a sore bum.

On the other hand, the paper says men attend emergency departments at a higher rate than women in every age group except the over-75s. (p.9) Society needs men to fight wars, earn money, support families. We also expect men to be massively interested in, and seeking sex. Nobody cares much about men with problems of depression, arms worn out by using machinery, repetitive strain injury. Men feel they have to soldier on.

Health: saints and sinners

It seems that the people who go to church the most, need religion the least. On the other hand, the sinners never go to church. It’s the same with health: some men are health nuts, others don’t seem to care. In the eastern suburbs of Sydney, where I live, people are very concerned about their appearance. Some are obsessed about “how do I look?” and panic over every new wrinkle. While they are sweating in the gym, others sweat all day in hard jobs and then sit in the pub, sometimes smoking as well. Some men do manage to live healthy lives but I believe far more would fall into either the “anxiously fit” or “the who-gives a ****” categories.

Special groups

Indigenous males feature prominently in the men’s health discussion papers. I would like to see attention given also to another group: new settlers. We are getting a trickle of refugees from Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe whose countries are in deep trouble. Their men and boys, we find, have had very limited education. Their understanding of a range of things is slight: yet they need to know about hepatitis, HIV-AIDS, TB, diphtheria; even the common cold. I seek not to denigrate them but to draw attention to their special needs.

Large numbers of other men have their own special needs: men with diabetes; men wrestling with issues of separation and divorce; men with HIV-AIDS and so on. Improving men’s health will mean attending to these special groups as well as looking after the needs of men as a group.

There are few positive generalisations about men. We are used to reading about women, with tales of the glass ceiling; women’s balancing act between family, husband and work; women and violence, women and rape … We are unused to people writing about men as a group unless someone is complaining that all men are failing to do something or other. And these failings include everything from not doing the house work to leaving the toilet seat up.

Men after divorce

Let’s look at one group for a moment. Men after divorce face a very tough struggle. They must hang onto their job, as they tend to become a chequebook for a family they don’t see very often. Many resent paying child support and find their kids are cautious towards them. It’s hard for them to be warm and supportive of their kids when they themselves feel they are breaking up. Yet many of us have found that, with the support of patient friends, we can resist becoming vindictive and wait for the days in which our kids come back to us.