Membership...focus on men's health

Stephen's Story
Read Stephen's story on why he became a members and some of the issues that affect men's healh today...

"I joined Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust after I saw an advertisement on a Leeds bus telling me that I could participate in, and help to shape, our NHS. This was appealing as I had spent the majority of my working life in or connected with the NHS and although it remains dear to my heart, sometimes it fails to reach the standards required. I believed that in the right environment I could contribute by using the experience I had gained from being both an employee and a patient to help overcome the challenges that the NHS faces now and in the future.

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust has provided me with the forum that I sought offering me a platform as well as practical involvement so that I have played a part in shaping what is to come. It also helps me to keep up to date with how the NHS is changing.

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust has also provided a pathway for wider involvement, working with the NHS Leadership Academy, Clinical Commissioning Groups, the CQC Action Team, the Open University pre-registration Nursing Programme and the opportunity to become an ‘Expert by Experience’ (a member of the CQC inspectorate).

Here are fourteen of the major issues (in no particular order} that I believe inform men’s approach to physical and emotional health:

• With the increase in female doctors, some men are too shy to discuss or be examined for ‘personal’ ailments
• Being ill does not correlate with male icons such as sports film and rock stars
• Some men feel that they are expected to be strong (illness being regarded as a weakness)
• Most health campaigns are targeted at women
• Poor previous experience of healthcare may be influential to some
• Most nurses are women
• Continuous contact between men and their GPs is easily broken after childhood (even children are most often taken to doctor’s by mother)
• Statutory Sick Pay is too low
• Women are entitled to more free prescriptions
• The media constantly publicise that the NHS is under strain
• Fear of discrimination at work
• Closing local services
• Difficulty in making a GP appointment
• Some men like to feel that they are in control of their lives, sometimes the NHS usurps this."

Find out more about being a member and our 'What's Up Man' campaign focusing on men's health here.