Men's Health Week 2025
International Men’s Health Week 2025 is 10-15 June.
Men’s Health Week began in the USA in 1994 following a Senate Joint Resolution. The Week was linked to Father’s Day in the USA and so always ends on that Day, the third Sunday in June). It became an international event in 2002 when it was first marked in the UK.
It has since been adopted in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and beyond. The Week provides an opportunity for a wide range of organizations and individuals to draw attention to the poor state of men’s health, organize activities that engage men, and advocate changes to health policy and practice. In short, it puts men’s health on the map both nationally and globally.
Australian Men’s Health Forum and Centre for Men’s Health
The Australian Men’s Health Forum (AMHF) has supported Men’s Health Week in Australia since 2002. Its key role is to encourage and support “the sector” to host events and activity during Men’s Health Week. This year it will be highlighting its Men’s Health Promotion Toolkits including its Know Your Man Facts resource. The AMHF also want to highlight the social determinants of men’s health and ensure they are not lost in exhortations to men and policy-makers.
Two-thirds of Australian men put off seeing a doctor when they notice a problem, preferring to manage it themselves or wait until it worsens. The Centre of Men’s Health at Western Sydney University will be highlighting this as part of a ‘from hesitation to action’ campaign to change health behaviours. They also want to target bad health advice such as old-school remedies and the latest fads using humour to highlight the gulf between everyday bad advice and a doctor’s expertise.
Canadian Men’s Health Foundation (CMHF)
Young men’s mental health is in crisis. In Canada, 43% of young men ages 19-29 are at risk for moderate-severe depression, compared to the broader male population (18%). Some 57% of young men ages 19-29 struggle with high-moderate anxiety, compared to the broader male population (30%).
For Men’s Health Month 2025, CMHF will expand the MindFit Toolkit to tackle stigma and offer more mental health solutions for men wherever they are in their journey. There will be men’s mental health research, new youth mental health tools, no-cost virtual counselling, a national video campaign and content series with third-party fundraising across Canada.
Men’s Health Forum in Ireland (MHFI)
The MHFI 2025 theme for Men’s Health Week is: ‘Shoulder-to-Shoulder: Connecting for Health’.
In its role as the central hub for the week in Ireland, it will provide alongside its dedicated web page: posters and postcards; banners, badges and logos; social media shares, messages and graphics; branded ‘giveaways’; videos and audio; ambassadors and champions; an evidence base; support for local group planning; signposting to resources and support; a toolbox for action; a webinar on practical ideas; a set of suggested daily themes; event promotion; coordinated press and media work; ‘Do You Know Your Numbers’ z-cards and an ‘Action Man’ Manual.
(Many organisations will be offering similar but the MHFI list is so comprehensive, it was worth listing in full.)
Men’s Health Forum (UK)
Following the promise by the UK government to introduce a Men’s Health Strategy, Men’s Health Week in the UK will be focussing its policy work on this issue with the aim of getting it (and the necessary accompanying Women’s Health Strategy) right as part of a reformed National Health Service.
For men (and women), the Forum hopes to produce a simple guide to how the NHS currently works (and how it could work better). It will be in the style of its existing award-winning Man Manuals.
Building on the Forum’s Men’s Health Champions training programme, it is hoped to develop a module around Masculinity and Men’s Health – men and online harms is a hot topic in the UK following the broadcast of the TV series Adolescence.
Men’s Health Network (USA)
MHN is focussing on the Empathy Gap (the societal tendency to minimise or dismiss the struggles of men and boys, particularly in health, education, mental well-being, and social support) and the Lifespan Gender Gap (the six-year difference in life expectancy between men and women)
To bridge the Empathy Gap, the MHN has an Action Plan focussing on:
- National Men’s Health Policy Agenda (expanding access & awareness for preventative care, screenings, & mental health services)
- Recognising the Importance of Wear Blue Day (highlighting men’s health & promoting men’s health awareness in the workplace)
- Collaboration with Ambassadors (building and expanding on support or awareness networks across America)
- State & Local Proclamations (encouraging official recognition of Men’s Health Month through government proclamations)
- Strengthening Global Partnerships (supporting the global network of men’s health organisations to improve the health and the well-being of men and boys everywhere).
- Learn more.
Stiftung Männergesundheit (Germany)
Stiftung Männergesundheit have as their core concept: Men – Know your Risk. Through a series of events scheduled across the week, they will help:
- boost health protection and risk detection by urologists
- identifying the risk of smoking and discussion with former smokers
- identifying the risk of alcohol and drug consumption (including discussion with anonymous alcoholics)
- demonstrate that Men’s Sheds are a valuable health resource for men
- provide family sporting events at community level at the week-end.
- Learn more.
#menshealthweek
