(2018-11-20) Men Wont Talk About Mental Health And Its Literally Killing Them

Men won't talk about mental health and it's literally killing them. In Australia, 75 percent of suicide attempts involve men. In the US that number is 78 percent.

Certain subsets are at an even higher risk: working-class men, men approaching middle age, men in rural areas. All are more likely to feel isolated, to believe that discussing mental health is a sign of weakness and statistically more likely to self-medicate with alcohol or other drugs.

"The number of men who die from suicide is three times the number who die in car accidents," says Dr. Grant Blashki.

*Perhaps cutting-edge technology has a part to play. There are apps for everything.

Apps that let you do regular psychological check-ins. Apps that provide daily mindfulness techniques. Apps that connect directly to smartwatches and use biometrics to diagnose potential mental health issues before you even recognize them in yourself.*

Headgear is one of those apps. Built in partnership with Beyond Blue, with funds from men's health charity the Movember Foundation, Headgear has a simple aim: Help men manage their mental health with proven therapies like mindfulness.

Anyone can use Headgear, but the app is clearly aimed at men. "Toughen your nut" is the tagline. The dashboard logo is a speedometer. The app has a section called "Toolbox" accompanied by an image of an actual toolbox.

"There needs to be a diversity of services," Scholz says, "because there's a diversity of men."

Slocombe is senior vice president at Medibio, a company that uses biometrics to diagnose, monitor and manage mental health issues.

Medibio is a mental health technology company that provides "corporate health solutions" to companies that suffer financially when employees struggle with mental health issues.

employers get topline data -- they know how many employees are taking part and receive reports based on collective scores, not individual scores. The idea, says Medibio, is for companies to identify broader, systemic issues and respond to them.

Medibio's solution is Inform, a mobile phone app that combines traditional psychological evaluations with biometrics taken from smartwatches. Medibio believes Inform can help empower people who don't even know they have mental health issues.

Slocombe says data is deidentified, meaning employers will never get access to individual biometric data. (Privacy)

*Data, believes Slocombe, inspires real-world action, particularly with men.

"If you have a chat with a psychologist like me and I say you have depression, it's easy to say, 'no, I'm good, it's just a tough break.'

"People are more likely to approach data objectively."*

Inform isn't tailored specifically for men, but it has been successful with men.