Theme 2: The experiences of men who seek, and clinicians who provide, mental health care

Examining men’s experiences of accessing, and clinicians’ perspectives about providing, mental health care, Theme 2 aims to guide effective gender-specific services and resource underserved sub-groups.

While many men are reticent to seek professional mental health care, recent studies have shown that more than half of the men who are lost to suicide engage professional help in the year prior to their death. Within this context, it is key to understand the barriers, facilitators and best practices for men who seek mental health support. The RMS Theme 2 sub-group aims to develop evidence-based content to equip clinicians to work with male clients.

Dr. Seidler’s work focuses on men’s mental health help-seeking and service providers, and he will co-lead Theme 2, ‘The experiences of men who seek, and clinicians who provide, mental health care’, with Dr. Kealy whose research addresses the processes and outcomes of men’s psychotherapy. With mentorship from Dr. Links whose work includes the study of clinicians who have lost a male client to suicide, Theme 2 will support Dr. Seidler’s development of the Men in Mind program, a free online interactive clinician education resource for working with male clients that is being evaluated through an RCT with Australian-based clinicians with the goal of adapting and launching the program in Canada, Dr. Genuchi’s research on the impact of masculinities on men’s experiences of depression and the unique processes that predict suicidality in various populations of men, Dr. Walther’s work on establishing multimodal therapies for depression and related disorders specifically tailored for men, and PhD student Chan’s (PhD supervisor Dr. Oliffe) secondary analysis of the experiences of Canadian mental health clinicians who work with men.