Transcript BOYS AND YOUNG MEN

BOYS AND
YOUNG MEN
One Wrong Turn
February, Feb, 2nd, 2016
THEMES
 Setting
the context
 Some broad messages from the
research
 Hearing the messages from a
recent research project
 Relationship based practice with
boys and young men
At risk and a risk: boys are a
problem!
Concerns about boys
They are at risk : poor school attainment, suicide,
alcohol and substance misuse
They are a risk: criminality and violence
Varying explanations advanced for why – lack of
male role models in private and public life is a
relatively recent common one
Other suggestions
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Changing gender roles
Changing economies – differing skill sets
needed
Masculinity as a problem( risky behaviours,
vulnerability issues, policing of vulnerability)
An important issue may be that boys know
they are viewed as a problem!!!!
Black boys and white services????
Research evidence
 Historical
evidence suggests that
some of the concerns are not new
 Not all boys are equally vulnerable
and not all are equally scrutinized
 Some recent work of interest which
locates boys within a broader
men’s health movement and which
does explore gender
 This
is important for a number of reasons
in order to
 Help boys to grow into healthy men at
best and at worst to tackle and reduce
numbers of male suicides
 There is also an important discussion to be
had about the contribution men/fathers
can make to boys’ emotional health
Seven ‘Big ideas’
 Treating
people as individuals – the role
of gender
 Stigma
 Support and intervention in the early
years
 Promoting Services
 The role of third parties
 Joined up services
 Knowledge and training
Gender
 What
is it?
 How does it relate to the individual?
 This is complicated
 Example from our recent research
Stigma
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Mental ill health is much more more stigmatised than most
forms of physical ill health.
The damaging experience of stigma is commonly reported
by mental health service users of both sexes.
There has been little work to examine whether stigma
affects men and women in different ways and/or in
different degree.
It is at least possible that, in general, men may feel stigma
more strongly than women, and that public attitudes may
be more prejudiced against men with mental health
problems than women.
A greater understanding of the relationship between
stigma and gender is needed.
Some good developments in this area
Early years
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Many of the attitudes and beliefs that
underpin people’s mental health behaviours
are established in childhood
There is much more that could be done to
support boys during childhood, especially
those boys whose circumstances may
increase their potential lifetime vulnerability to
mental health difficulties and may reduce
their capacity for seeking help.
Supporting the development of good mental
health is not currently a shared objective for
health, education and social service
providers
The role of third parties
 Third
parties may have a very particular
role in supporting men and boys and
encouraging men and boys to seek help
 The help-seeking literature is pretty clear
on the gendered differences in terms of
help-seeking behaviours
 Friends, family and so on
 Peer –support- Men in Sheds movement
Promoting services
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The evidence suggests that men tend to
under-use mental health services. There is
probably no single explanation for why this
should be.
It is probable that a more sophisticated and
nuanced approach to the promotion and
delivery of services could improve male
uptake. Men who find help-seeking difficult
are not going to change in the short term –
but mental health services can.
Joined up approaches
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Men in mental distress often exhibit difficulties in
other areas of their life and functioning. Alcohol
and drug misuse – which may have been used as
a coping mechanism – are common. Relationship
problems, social disengagement, offending
behaviour, and difficulties with
work (chronic unemployment or work-related
stress) also occur. “Whole-life” problems
need whole-life solutions. Joined-up approaches
which include the involvement of social
care, employment, and housing providers may be
of particular value for men, who
sometimes lack supportive networks of their own.
Training and knowledge
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Training in relation to the most important
issues in male mental health may be
particularly useful
Beyond developing practitioner expertise
however, we believe that there is a good
case to be made for the development
of a much greater professional and
academic knowledge base
There is little dissemination of good practice,
and the academic literature is sparse
Beyond male role models?
 Brief
outline of the rationale
 50 boys and young men – 16-25
 Across a range of services and parts of
the country
Key findings
 Family
 Place
 The
role of services as a ‘third space’
 Relationship based practice – the role of
gender etc
Family
 Fathers
were often disappointing
 But mothers and grandmothers important
 Early deaths and loss
 Developing a family of their own
Place
 Different
opportunities and constraints
economically
 The’ street’
 Danger from other boys but also from
police (especially for black boys)
 Public displays of hyper masculinity
The role of services
 ‘third
space’
 Warmth, food and practical help
 Legitimation of a different kind of
masculinity
 Role of different types of workers
modelling different behaviours
Workers
 Relationships
were built on the basis of
trust reliability, consistency
 Shared background a plus
 But not essential
 CARE
References
Wilkins, D and Kemple, M (201) Delivering
male: Effective practice in male mental
health, www.mind.org.uk
Robb, M., Featherstone,B., Ruxton, S. and
Ward, M. (2015) Beyond male role models,
Milton Keynes, The Open University