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WIRRAL LIFE TALK TO KATIE TAYLOR-SMITH -
FOUNDER OF CHARITY 'MEN TOO'
After beating cancer, married mum of three Katie, from Wirral,
felt that she had a second chance at life. She decided to go back to
school to do her degree at Chester University where she bumped
into an old friend from her hometown. Their studies continued
but then just before Christmas last year Katie found out that her
friend had tragically taken his own life.
Katie once again decided to take action and launched a campaign
called MEN TOO. Wirral Life found out more about it.
How did you come up with the campaign?
I was deeply saddened as the world had lost someone so lovely, kind
and funny in my friend. However, I also noticed that this was being
reported in the media time and time again, and it made me very
concerned. I wanted to know why these men felt that ending their
lives was their best option. I wanted to tell each one of these boys and
men that they were valued, loved and important within our society.
So, I felt responsible for creating awareness.
I focussed my research on male suicide and discovered that 3 out of
4 were committed by men. I further researched and discovered that
some men had seemingly lost their self-value, their identity and their
support. Added to this their feelings of being unable to safely express
their emotions for fear of judgment and discrimination.
So, what are you trying to achieve?
I think we need to do more to promote the mental health and
wellbeing of the male population, as they are a vulnerable population
at risk. We need to work together as a community to address this
situation.
The MEN TOO campaign is asking as many local businesses as
possible to provide ‘safe spaces’ for their organisation perhaps once
a week or month - whenever they can. This only needs to consist of
each advertising a free ‘drop in’ for men - and perhaps include a free
drink or snack - again whatever they can.
We’d like that each business use the MEN TOO campaign logo
as a symbol to show this is available so that we can be united and
collectively create more awareness of this need and support.
16 wirrallife.com
Isn’t that quite difficult for unqualified people?
This campaign is to provide social support so that the male population
can feel valued, supported and cared about. We do not expect local
businesses to give mental health advice, and we will provide each
business with professional mental health contact details should
they be approached about mental health issues so they can signpost
individuals.
Social isolation is a main contributor towards developing mental
health illness and poor health, and so by encouraging social
interaction we hope to lower these risks and reduce these devastating
suicide rates.
Why do you think this is such a difficult issue to tackle?
Suicide is the most common cause of death in England and Wales in
men under 50. It’s staggering.
I think social expectations put us under great strain. We’re all
supposed to be everything these days. Men are no different. They are
under a lot of pressure to conform to stereotypical male roles, such as
‘men are brave’, ‘men don’t cry’ and ‘man up’, which acts as a barrier
preventing them from seeking help for fear of being judged. No one
wants to be seen as ‘less of a man.’
It gets worse when we throw social media into the mix. It is filled with
filtered ideal lives and portrayals of perfection which for the most
part aren’t reality. This has intensified the social pressures on men to
look a certain way, behave a certain way and be successful. Men find
it hard to communicate their distress and seek help and support and
so it goes from there.
What can we do?
Contact us at MEN TOO so we can advise you how best to implement
this idea within your business and provide you with our logo so people
can be aware you’re providing this safe environment for people. Our
overall aim is to show that we care about those around us and bring
down the statistics.
To contact MEN TOO, call 0843 289 0616 or email
[email protected]