Page 3707 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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health supports to go where men are, such as male-dominated workplaces; that is an effective way of shifting suicidality. That is why ACT Health provides funding to AusHealth to provide its industry and community suicide prevention and social capacity building programs in the ACT. The Health Directorate funding enables AusHealth to target apprentices and workers in traditionally male-dominated industries, such as building and construction industries, and to provide mental health and wellbeing information and support. In 2022-23 the government is providing nearly $800,000 to support AusHealth’s operations. It is also why the government provides more than $550,000 annually to Menslink to deliver a young men’s mentoring and counselling program across Canberra for young men aged 10 to 25 years who have been negatively affected by life experiences and who experience personal or social integration challenges.
These investments are driven by the evidence and our co-design strategies to focus our investment on where it is needed most. We could talk at a whole-of-government level about our work with men’s sheds—again, an opportunity for men to sit alongside one another and talk about what is going on in their lives.
The government also recognises that communications are key to raising awareness among at-risk groups. The Health Directorate regularly publishes information messaging about men’s health issues and initiatives through its own and whole-of-government channels, such as social media, Our Canberra and website information. For example, we know that, nationally, the engagement of men in routine preventive health care is suboptimal, as Ms Castley has talked about. Two-thirds of men do not access health care for preventive reasons. That is why, during men’s health week, between 13 and 19 June this year, the ACT Health Directorate targeted messaging to highlight the importance of regular health checks.
Data from the Kirby Institute indicates that men, particularly gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men, are over-represented in ACT sexually transmissible infections and bloodborne virus notifications, particularly for HIV, gonorrhoea and infectious syphilis, and that is why we focus on this area. Of course, in our preventive health strategy, reducing risky behaviours is a domain. It recognises specifically that young men are more likely to engage in risky behaviours. It also identifies the LGBTIQ+ population as a priority.
Continuing this theme, evidence suggests that common barriers exist to men accessing health services, including cost, geographic location, health, literacy, employment and education. That is why the government invests in supports aimed at the most vulnerable in our community, where it is harder, due to location, cost and other barriers.
There is no clearer example of this than the successful Directions Health Services mobile primary care outreach “chat to PAT” clientele of homeless people, people who have alcohol and drug dependencies, and other vulnerable people who are overwhelmingly men.
Mr Assistant Speaker, I could go on. I am running out of time, but I think I have made my point.
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