In doing its part for World Mental Health Day (which is today), news.com.au has created a campaign to highlight men’s mental health issues.
Suicide is the leading cause of death in men aged 15 to 44, and the numbers of men who die every year exceeds those killed in road accidents. In Australia, about 75 per cent of suicides are committed by men. They are three times more likely to self-harm than women.
Over the next four weeks through news.com.au editorial and video content, the campaign ‘The silent killer: Let’s make some noise’ will encourage men to talk to each other, their families and friends about what’s going on in their lives.
Today, six blokes in Australia will take their own life. It’s a tragic statistic, and a sad reality. We need to talk about this, today on #WorldMentalHealthDay, and #makesomenoise. pic.twitter.com/TZ9fVjs560
— news.com.au (@newscomauHQ) October 9, 2018
The campaign will also be supporting the work of Gotcha4Life and Movember.
News.com.au editor-in-chief Kate de Brito said: “We are seeing these stories every day and the statistics are horrifying. It is a crisis we cannot ignore.
“We are raising awareness about men’s mental health not because women’s mental health doesn’t matter, but because of the stark gender imbalance in suicide rates and experts who believe men could be helped if they had better targeted support.
“Crisis services are doing their best; however, some believe we must begin to focus the way they deal with men and women differently in order to reach the men who so desperately need help but are afraid to reach out.”
