Shepherd, Gary ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8178-1141 and Murphy, Holly (2025) Co-producing men’s mental health and suicide prevention research with a charity partner. In: British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy International Conference 2025.

Slideshow (Presentation to the international BACP research Conference 2025) BACP Presentation.pptx - Accepted Version Download (4MB)

Abstract

Background
Our research team from the York St John University counselling department, collaborated with the York-based men’s suicide prevention charity, Menfulness, to conduct a 10-month, co-participatory research project. The aim was to provide an evaluation of service for the charity and assess it against the Samaritans' guide for engaging men earlier. The project ended with a one-day conference for mental health stakeholders.

Methods
We surveyed 250 members of Menfulness and carried out one-on-one interviews, along with focus group discussions.

Findings
Our findings revealed a strong alignment with the Samaritans’ guidance. We found that since joining Menfulness, the number of members reporting poor mental health dropped significantly - from 92 to 22 participants. The number of men who experienced low moods fell from 112 to 32. A significant finding was that, prior to joining the charity, 17 men had attempted suicide, but none reported attempts after becoming members. We observed a shift in attitudes toward seeking therapy or counselling; while 22% of participants were extremely unlikely to seek therapy before joining Menfulness, this figure decreased to 3% after joining. Those extremely likely to seek therapy rose from 15% to 70%.

Conclusions
The project has fostered stronger community ties and opened new opportunities for collaboration. We successfully secured further funding to extend the project until March 2025, and have applied for funding to establish and evaluate a new branch of Menfulness in Scarborough, an area facing elevated suicide rates and socio-economic challenges. The goal of Menfulness is to adapt this model for areas with higher levels of deprivation and expand the service across the north of England.

Limitations of the project were limits on the time able to engage with our co-researchers, since they were employed full-time as well as being charity trustees. Throughout the research we engaged in reflexivity within our mixed-gender team, which was important when researching topics related to masculinity.

A further outcome of the research was an academic journal article asking what men gained from listening to the Menfulness podcast. We interviewed nine male listeners of the podcast and analyzed their responses using thematic analysis. We concluded that that the podcast promoted inclusive and flexible examples of masculinity which encouraged reflectiveness and help-seeking among listeners. We recommended ways to promote flexible masculinity through podcast content.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF637 Counselling
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
Institutes:	Institute for Social Justice
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/12084

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