www.mensnetwork.ie
Our health work continues to highlight how wellbeing requires a shift in focus from what can go wrong in men’s lives, to what can go right.
NATIONAL MEN’S HEALTH PROGRAMME (NMHP)
Partnering in policy inputs, planning and promotion
Our NMHP has incrementally focused on informing policy development and practice for engaging and supporting men. This has been achieved through contributing to and supporting key initiatives and a partnership approach to work, including:
MDN’s Training and Resource Development Manager, Lorcan Brennan, serves on the Implementation Group and Drafting Committee for HI-M.
Creating better lives for all
Purpose of MDN (as per the Men’s Development Network’s Strategic Plan 2015-2025): Building on all men’s humanity and ability to connect, MDN works to better men’s lives through addressing the social determinants, social conditioning, gender conditioning, and gender-based role stereotypes cause harm to men and women. MDN works from the belief that a society where men and women are free from the negative effects of these factors will lead to better lives for men, better lives for all.
What we strive to achieve:
A selection of webinars, interviews and videos, including: MDN inputs to the HSE Health and Wellbeing Engaging Men series;
interesting insights from some of our project collaborators; and our Men in the Middle Men's Health symposium in 2018
The Engage National Men’s Training Programme is a training and educational programme which was created via a partnership between South East Technological University, Men’s Development Network, the Men’s Health Forum Ireland, and the Health Service Executive’s Health Promotion Department.
The aim is to increase participants’ understanding of best practice in engaging men with health and social services. MDN co-ordinates and manages the training for this programme, developing module materials and resources, as well as Engage delivery methods. The Network, in partnership, co-facilitates the training of trainers process and mentors trainers in the field, which further builds capacity and reinforces programme learnings.
The ‘Engage’ training programme aims to increase participants’ understanding of best practice in engaging men with health and social services. Specifically, on completion of the training programme, participants will:
Read this Journal article about the impact of Engage.
Photo: Group of new Engage Trainers pictured in Athlone, April 2022.
In the review of the National Men’s Health Policy, Engage emerged as a key pillar of policy implementation. It was described as a major and unique training resource, with the capacity to reach significant numbers of front-line service providers. Since the advent of Engage:
Ireland’s National Men’s Health Policy and the Healthy Ireland – Men Action Plan has made Ireland a world leader in this field, and added value to the development of other strategies, such as the WHO-Europe Men’s Health Strategy.
ON FEIRM GROUND — the new workshop series that equips agricultural advisors with the knowledge and skills to engage farmers around their health & wellbeing — continued its successful nationwide rollout in February and early March of 2022, with the next series starting in June.
Delivered online, the course is Unit 8 of the ‘Engage’ National Men’s Health Training Programme. Specialising in evidence-based best practice around connecting males with health and social services, the Engage model was developed to address the deficit in gender-sensitive service provision.
MDN worked with its Engage Training partners (namely South East Technological University, HSE Ireland, and the Men’s Health Forum in Ireland) to prepare and deliver the course modules.
Originally intended for in-room settings but adapted to the landscape shaped by Covid-19, On Feirm Ground is instead being workshopped live online to frontline Agri advisors around Ireland. It informs their engagement with farmers on health and wellbeing issues and in signposting clients to appropriate services.
Supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Dept of Health and the HSE (see here), the programme serves to mainstream a health promotion focus into routine farming extension activities.
“The feedback from the rollout of On Feirm Ground has been very positive,” says Lorcan Brennan, MDN’s National Training & Resource Development Manager. “It’s proving a versatile and rich remote learning experience. All involved are drawing much from the valuable and interesting content covered each day.”
Sessions are being facilitated by agricultural advisors in conjunction with key partners, including MDN and the HSE. Throughout February and early March, 10 online training days took place.
Registrations and academic research feedback are being channelled through the dynamic new engagetraining.ie website. See here for how the programme came about.
Things said about Engage Training:
The energy and positivity was intoxicating and it was very informative.
Yes, I think all of my staff should get this training as we work alongside young men every day and this training would be of great benefit.
Great day of reflection, idea sharing and learning for working with men.
It’s a wonderful learning opportunity and provides an encouraging and motivating space.
The facilitators were excellent and opportunities for reflective practice is always beneficial to your work.
I think all frontline staff should attend this training – very helpful.
Really allows you the opportunity to reflect on your own practice and service and how you can improve.
Very enjoyable and interactive. Full of information.
I actually think everyone should do this training, men or women. Let’s you take a step back and actually see the whole man – who they are, where they are coming from, etc.
It was an extremely well-facilitated, educational and respectful learning day.
A deeper look at influences on young men and what impacts their attitudes/behaviours.
Very enjoyable day with great trainers and group. Picked up lots of little tips of ways to engage with young men.
Super-positive setting, lovely trainers, useful topics/discussions and tips.
Very informative but it’s not just knowledge; it pulls out existing skills and experiences.
Essential training for all people having any involvement with young men – individually or in groups.
Very important as I find some colleagues shy away from engaging with men. This course will give them the confidence to try harder.
Presenting 12 evidence-based ways on how as men we can be more proactive in caring for our own health & wellbeing.
10 things to improve men’s health and the 10 reasons to try.
Module from Engage – National Men’s Health Training Initiative highlighting what to bear in mind when engaging and sustaining men in different health & wellbeing programmes.
How MDN’s methodology can be used to engage & support men in improving self-care, health & wellbeing. The importance of a strengths-based approach in identifying incremental actions for positive change.
Discussing ENGAGE, designed to assist practitioners address the current deficit in gender-sensitive service provision. Focuses on the engagement process (i.e. why & how to build relationships, rather than what to offer men).
How can men can mind our wellbeing and health through difficult periods? We look at 12 things we can do to support ourselves & others.
Recent research on workplace wellbeing was outlined at the Healthy Workplace Networking Seminar at the Department of Health Head Office in Dublin on Monday, 23 May 2022. Lorcan Brennan, MDN’s Training & Resource Development Manager, and Finian Murray, HSE Men’s Health Development Officer (pictured) were among those who attended the half-day gathering in the Department of Health, taking the opportunity to promote plans for Men’s Health Week (June 13-19).
A fully booked Valentine’s Day 2022 presentation was delivered to Facilitators of the HSE’s Quit Smoking for Men Programme, drawing on key learnings from the Engage National Men’s Health Programme and highlighting evidence-based insights.
MDN’s Lorcan Brennan and Finian Murray, Men’s Health Development Officer within the HSE’s Health Promotion and Improvement Department, co-facilitated this online workshop (hosted by Caitriona Reynolds, HSE). It focused on positively supporting and engaging men on their health and wellbeing, specifically around smoking.
Dr. Noel Richardson, co-author of the National Men’s Health Policy with Dr. Paula Carroll, shares the story of the development of the policy in Ireland and his hopes for the future that services will use it as a resource to inform work, men’s health initiatives for engaging with men. (2009)
House of Story founder in Raheen, Co Wexford, Fr. Jim Finn shares about his own past, his love of story and its power in supporting transformation, health and healing when facilitated with sensitivity and care in our lives. (2007)
A series of interviews reflecting on the positive impact of the Larkin’s Centre, Men’s Health & Wellbeing Programme, linked with Celtic Football Club, in Ballybough Dublin. The interviews were recorded at the health programmes evaluation launch in Dublin and give a real flavour of what has been achieved through its supportive, informative and creative approach to engaging men with their health. (2010)
Three men who participated in a Men’s Development Network Annual Summer School share about their experience of being involved and how such a gathering. The highlight how important it is for men to find supportive and safe spaces for men to meet, reflect on their lives and identify positive ways of caring for themselves and living flourishing lives. (2007)
Colin Fowler from the Men’s Health Forum Ireland (MHFI) talks about his own working and personal experience and highlights Men’s Health Week 2010, which focused on getting males on the island to become more physically active and Get Up, Get Out, Get Going. (2010)
Men’s Development Network has served on and continues to serve on a range of National Committees dedicated to tackling health inequalities, while promoting wellbeing, mental health, and resilience among men at risk of or experiencing marginalisation.
Over the past 25 years of community development practice, MDN has promoted a social determinants awareness approach to supporting and engaging men in relation to their health and wellbeing. Communities of men in Ireland are quite diverse and can be shaped by social class, location, age, ethnicity, sexuality and/or ability.
We apply appropriate policy and practice, through a transforming masculinities lens, to reflect this diversity and engage men.
The restrictions caused by Covid-19 in 2020-21 meant many of these committee meetings were held virtually, allowing for the continuation of planning, resource development, skill-sharing, networking, and the dissemination of relevant health and wellbeing information.
These Committee assignments include:
Communications and our social media presence has played an integral role in the reimagining of the Men’s Development’s work across the organisation and in particular Health and Development.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, it was a priority for MDN to recalibrate messaging around safety, wellbeing and signposting to appropriate services.
As an organisation, Men’s Development Network has always signposted evidence-based supports and services for men across the island of Ireland.
This work was perhaps most visible throughout the Coronavirus crisis. Online resources, presentations, trainings, webinars and other virtual events were used to signpost relevant supports and services for men at local, regional, and national levels.
Connecting to our social channels, MDN’s website became a hub for publishing information and sharing links to services and advice designed to help men and their families through a stressful period of lockdowns, restrictions, and general uncertainty.
As responses to the pandemic were developed, updated information about how to get a Covid-19 test and registration for vaccination services was highlighted on the site.
Webpage: www.mensnetwork.ie/covid
MDN has taken an active part in the HSE Health and Wellbeing Engaging Men webinar series in conjunction with the HSE, Healthy Ireland, the Men’s Health Forum Ireland and South East Technological University (National Centre for Men’s Health, Carlow).
Lorcan Brennan hosted the first three webinars and MDN’s CEO Seán Cooke appeared on the panel for the fourth. These events explored the following themes:
See Video Views section above to watch these recordings.
During the pandemic, MDN reached audiences online to deliver practical and interesting insights relevant to its Health and Development Programme.
The rationale behind this series, screened across eight monthly midweek/midday sessions, was to offer service providers key information on the work of MDN and its programmes; unpacking how we positively support men by unlearning negative aspects of gender conditioning.
These broadcasts further served to highlight key relevant information in relation to our unique developmental approach to engage with men about their lives and health. They also raised awareness of the Engage Training Programme and its key modular units relevant to engaging men.
See webpage here.
This seven-part webinar series sought to promote life-enhancing wellbeing and health messages through conversations with people working in this space.
They included March’s Learning in Circles with Sé Franklin (MDN National Rep); April’s Men’s Health Week preview with Coli Fowler (Men’s Health Forum in Ireland); May’s Men, Health and Humour with Finian Murray (HSE) who was also the final October guest; June’s Rediscovering the Great Outdoors with Jason King (Get Ireland Walking); July’s Supporting Traveller Men’s Health with Andy O’Hara (former Men’s Health Coordinator, Pavee Point); and September’s Putting Men at Ease with Helen Forristal (Director of Nursing Services, Marie Keating Foundation).
See webpage here.
Working with Pavee Point in developing key health messaging for Traveller Men
MDN serves on the ‘What’s Your Story’ Advisory Committee on Digital Storytelling with Traveller Men. The aim of this initiative is to explore the acceptability and impact of a digital storytelling (DST) intervention on the mental health of Traveller men affected by suicide. This work is in partnership with Pavee Point, among other relevant stakeholders.
In July 2021, a session of our webinar interview series, Your Passion, Your Legacy was dedicated to the theme of Supporting Traveller Men’s Health and featured Andy O’Hara, former Men’s Health Coordinator with Pavee Point.
In March 2018, the Men’s Health Forum in Ireland (MHFI) launched their ‘Middle-Aged Men and Suicide in Ireland’ report at a Symposium in Dublin titled ‘Men in the Middle’. In this video, Lorcan Brennan from Men’s Development Network interviews participants about the learnings from the report and the event.
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