Changing men’s health: Movember 2020 is here

We encourage you as individuals and employers to take time out to read more here about the campaign and the ways in which we can all help to open up the conversation in our organisations and remove stigma around it.

Why is Movember so important?  

Established in 2003 and growing from a small group of 30 to over 6 million ‘Mo Bros’ and ‘Mo Sisters’ being actively engaged, Movember focuses on men’s mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

Globally men die six years earlier than women on average, for reasons that are largely preventable, and as the stats below demonstrate this is why raising awareness in our workplaces, families and friendship groups has never been more important:

• Globally, one man takes his own life every minute, of every day
• More than 1.3 million men are diagnosed with prostate cancer globally each year and it is second most common cancer in men
• Testicular cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in young men in Ireland and whilst survival rates are greater than 95%, for some men their quality of life can be significantly impacted as a result of the side effects of long-term treatment

Changing the narrative

Unfortunately, levels of embarrassment continue to be associated with discussing these subjects but as individuals, employers and organisations we can help drive change around that.

The best way to do that is to get involved. In raising awareness and educating ourselves, our managers and employees, we will help to make it ‘OK’ for men to talk about these issues.

With a dedicated site Movember Ireland links directly to the global campaign.

For employers, providing information, advice and resources on each of these dedicated areas of men’s health, this is a fantastic place to start (or continue) your organisation’s awareness raising campaign.

And it goes further with a breadth of ideas to help spread the messaging which all of us can get involved with such as:

• Grow a Moustache
• Move for Movember 
• Host a Mo-ment
• Mo Your Own Way 

Driving the conversation

As we’ve said above the difficulty men can face in talking about these subjects continues to exist and we’re sure you would agree this cannot continue.

The action we take now by getting involved and supporting men in the workplace and in their personal lives means they can live longer, healthier and happier lives – and that is an outcome we all want to see.

We want to hear from you