Men's Minds Matter CIC

Tackling male suicide by improving the mental health and wellbeing of men and boys

The Men’s Mind Matter (MMM) website was originally developed to host a groundbreaking psychological research project looking at men’s relationship to seeking psychological help (Sullivan, Camic & Brown, 2015).

In 2011, MMM evolved into a public health initiative raising awareness of male suicide rates and developing ways of improving the mental health of men and boys in the UK. We continue to produce award nominated national campaigns with the support of our partners.

MMM was formed on the principle of balance and equality. The high rates of suicide in men are one of the biggest health inequalities that exists which is why men are recognised as an at-risk group in the UK’s National Suicide Prevention Policy. Their inclusion means there is a legal obligation for service to be gender sensitive to the experiences of men, Men’s Minds Matter, and leaders in the field.

In 2013, we registered as a community interest company and continue to evolve and shape suicide prevention in the UK. We unashamedly speak directly to men although our model for interventions transcends gender and is relevant to all humans.

Men’s Minds Matter now focuses on developing psychological interventions for people in suicidal crisis. Our model of psychological entrapment and suicidal crises underpins everything we do and we believe it has the potential to save many lives. Although we are based in Doncaster and London our model can help anyone anywhere.

We understand the challenges of turning towards male distress and the impact of male distress can have consequences for other men, women, and children. However, improving psychological wellbeing is essential for improving mens outcomes and society in general.

Why the community needs us

We focus on making evidence based psychological information and support accessible via digital content. Our was develop through a combination of applied psychological science and lived experience. Our mission is to make these interventions available to the 72% of suicides which occur outside of the NHS. We want to: improve awareness and understanding of suicide and how gender interplays; improve access to evidence-based practices that prevent suicide; increase the number of men in crisis accessing therapy/support; and train as many people as possible in suicide-prevention skills.

Our impact on the community

We raise awareness of male suicide by consistently providing accurate and scientifically-driven content via our website and social media platforms which are accessed globally. We specialise in developing psychological interventions that prevent suicide - drawing from psychological theory, evidence-based practices & clinical experience of working with people who are suicidal. Our aim is to guide people safely through crises by providing specialist self-help material, developing a web-based app and crisis cards, offering online workshops and building a community of support for people in need.

How do we use the money we raise through our fundraisers?

Our model defines everything we do and provides a ‘map’ for the development and delivery of interventions. The model informs everything we do from our written content, training and face to face work. Our online platforms enable us to bring our intervention to the 78% of people who do not come into contact with NHS crisis services. By understanding the components that contribute to and maintain suicidality we can target these mechanisms and draw on evidence-based practices. Our model has enabled us to develop a range of direct and indirect interventions which are already helping to save lives. Here are some examples of what we do:

App Development

We’ve done our research on what is currently available digitally for people who are actively suicidal. Both from a technical (Luke) and experiential (Nigel) point of view. There are currently very few options and those that do exist only include single components of what we intend to develop. Our web-application is built upon our MMM model of psychological entrapment and suicidal crises. This structure is what will enable us to develop something truly groundbreaking.

Through our platform we have the potential to address an unmet need. The best way to get interventions to people in suicidal crisis who do not approach mental health services is via a web application. It will primarily be a support tool people who are struggling with a suicidal crisis. It’s also a tool for clinicians and those who are supporting the person to use in situ. And if that wasn’t enough, we intend to go even further by providing access to psycho-educational material which enhances wellbeing.

Suicide Prevention Training for Clinicians

Men’s Minds Matter launched its first formal training session for psychological practitioners working with people in a suicidal crisis in 2021. The training sold out in hours and the evaluation of the training was extremely positive. We continue to offer this training to clinicians so that more people can quickly and confidently assess, formulate, and intervene with people who are suicidal. Our model informs the work of NHS Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Teams up and down the country. We are developing other training packages, including training for GP’s.

Suicide training for carers, friends, families, and communities

Our model has enabled us to develop training for the general population who are often the first responders to people who are suicidal (Sullivan, Camic, Brown, 2015). Our training goes beyond what is already available. We provide the psychoeducation needed to be more informed and skilled when meeting someone in crisis and introduce techniques and evidenced based practice that could be applied by the general population. We’re able to deliver this training at a level and in language that is understandable to our audience. Suicide is everyone business and if we are all better at helping this will make a difference.

Suicide Prevention in the Workplace

We go into diverse range of workplaces and speak about suicide prevention and intervention. As all organisations are different, so are our conversations with them. We create bespoke content that relates to an organisation’s personality so that our message is received as succinctly as possible. The common thread running through all our workplace activities is that we give people permission to talk about things that are rarely discussed openly. More often that not there are people who have been directly affected by suicide, we remove the stigma that surrounds these conversations.

Workplaces have a big role to play, they’re where we spend the majority of our waking hours and colleagues are people we spend most of our time with. Work colleagues are a potential source of support but there’s often a barrier around ‘professionalism’ that stifles this, we help to point this out and open up supporting conversations amongst colleagues and the wider organisation. We can provide a range of different events from hour long presentations to afternoons or whole day workshops.

Research & Development

We have partnered with researchers in mental health at Teesside University to develop the evidence base necessary to support our model of psychological entrapment and suicidal crises. We also aim to better understand the psychological experiences of men and boys. The main aim of this group is to establish our model as an evidenced based intervention for people that are actively experiencing a suicidal crisis.

This is a growing and emerging community of researchers, clinicians and people with lived experience who are passionate about saving lives. The group aims to become leaders in suicide intervention research and we have taken big steps towards this over the past year. We believe that this collective is essential in taking a model which has clinical applicability and securing the support required to make it accessible to all.

Written Material

Our print and online content is develop in line with the MMM model of psychological entrapment and suicidal crises. This enables us to develop content that is targeted and based on the best evidence available. The content we develop is built so that it can be used for our main MMM objective – an interactive web based self help / guided self help intervention application.

Face to Face Work

Our model currently informs psychological intervention in NHS crisis resolution teams across the UK. These teams are the NHS service tasked with providing support to people in a suicidal crisis and they work face to face with people with active intentions and plans to end their lives. Men’s Minds Matter also offers face to face and online intervention to people who reach out to our service. However, our capacity is currently limited by the resources we have available.

Round Up

MMM is a community of passionate people who intend to reduce suicides and save lives. Our approach is unique and built upon clinical and lived experience. The model we have developed provides the map for resolution – a way out of psychological entrapment that drives suicide. It’s the only one of its kind and underpins everything we do. Our strategic plan, built on our model will enable us to do something remarkable. Something yet to be achieved anywhere. We now need the resources to make this happen and the time is now.

Volunteers needed

MMM has been built on the kind contributions of volunteers, since 2009. We have been able to achieve so much over the years and there have been many people who have helped and supported our cause. Without these volunteers we would not have survived or been able to make the contribution we have to suicide prevention. At the moment we particularly need help from people who can help MMM grow as an organisation. This includes people with experience of grant writing, those with a background of launching businesses and start-ups, accountancy skills, writers and those with knowledge of web and app development. We also work closely with people with lived experience and consult with people on the work we produce. We see this as an integral part of our content development

What your gift could provide

£30

Bring specialists in by the hour to support our work

£2,000

Running cost of a suicide prevention and intervention workshop

£5,000

Make a component of the web-app

Fundraise for us!