Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) raise awareness of and (b) tackle stigma associated with (i) loneliness and (ii) mental health challenges among men.

Raising awareness of loneliness across society and reducing the associated stigma for all groups at risk of loneliness, including men, is a core part of the Government’s current approach to tackling loneliness. This includes providing loneliness advice as part of the Better Health: Every Mind Matters campaign.

The Department for Culture, Media and Support is also supporting organisations which can play a role in reducing loneliness stigma amongst men through the tackling loneliness hub, an online platform that connects professionals from across sectors working to reduce loneliness.

Men with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they need, which is why we will ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health so that men can be confident of accessing high quality mental health support when they need it. We will modernise the Mental Health Act and we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays, provide faster treatment and help ease pressure on busy mental health services.

We have committed to tackling suicide as one of the biggest killers of men and, as part of this, the new mental health workers will be specially trained to support people at risk of suicide.

We will also continue to work with the wide range of voluntary community and social enterprise organisations such as Men’s Sheds, ANDYSMANCLUB and the Campaign Against Living Miserably which play such an important role in supporting men at risk of mental ill health and suicide.