The Bulletin - Monday, October 15, 2007

The Bulletin's account of a health system that continues to ignore men's health as a priority is long overdue. Throughout the hangover for life campaign and despite several attempts, no one seemed the least interested in highlighting the fact that alcohol-related harm, including brain damage, is and remains very much a men's health issue. The fact that 80% of people diagnosed with brain damage are male hardly raised an eyebrow. Instead, we were left to search for female case stories that, whilst representing an increasing number of cases, remain the minority.

If you want to know where the explicit avoidance of men's health begins, look no further than the World Health Organisation. Whilst you would never deny the importance of children's and women's health, it is the absence of men's health that is strikingly noticeable despite WHO's statistics in global suicide, alcohol and other drugs and mental health indicating that men outnumber women up to four to one on most counts. Meanwhile, cellular phones, Guinea Worm Disease and indoor air pollution beat men's health to the list of health world priorities.

Rather oddly, it appears that dealing with men's health as part of a wider issue is fine, to explicitly name it for what it is, is not. WHO's global health priorities set the agenda for the rest of the world. This helps to explain the complete absence of men's health on most State and Commonwealth health websites unless, of course, it is subtly talked about within the context of a broader topic.

In my twenty years in the welfare sector, where men far outnumber women in health, criminal justice and homelessness, I can say it is one of the most blatant forms of discrimination I have experienced. On my last attempt to raise alcohol-related harm as a men's health issue I was advised by a male media representative that we did not need a female advocate on the topic and that men only had themselves to blame. Well, let's hope Eccleston's account pre-empts a more sophisticated and sorely needed response than we have received.

Link to article on The Bulletin website: Readers' feedback on 'Why men like Mainwaring die early'