Learning from our recent work for York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority

As we get into spring I wonder how many of us have been able to maintain our new year’s resolutions. 

Many people’s minds are drawn to self-improvement, 23% of those making promises to themselves intend to exercise more or get fit. As only around one fifth make resolutions and fewer still fulfilling their own promise, it can be difficult to know what to decide you need to ‘improve’ on. As research shows us that people’s physical health is often linked to their mental health, with a quarter of people aiming to ‘get fit’, you can wonder if they also strive to improve their mental wellbeing and resilience along the way. Although the two can go hand in hand, it is easier to talk about fitness goals than mental health. Equally fitness and sport have become more accessible over recent years with more inclusive spaces such as women’s only gym sections, walking football and gentle yoga.  

The support and services available for mental health and wellbeing, however, if often harder to come across; with added barriers to lack of dedicated services, stigma around access, and rural disparities.  

Across the UK, statistics show that we are currently in a mental health crisis, where there is an epidemic of poor mental health hidden in plain sight. By looking at the suicide rates, there has been an increase in recent years, particularly in men. Men between the age of 45-54 are increasing at the highest risk and the current systems and community initiatives are fighting an uphill struggle and cannot replace clinical care or treatment. Suicide rates in Wales was higher than in England, this was an increase since 2023; this may be reflected in the more rural landscape, smaller population affecting rates more drastically, and the economic stresses and heightened stigma affecting middle-aged males.  

Recently,  I led a project mapping men’s mental health services for the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA). The project was part of their Men’s Mental Health Investment Programme which was created as suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50, as poor mental health is a major cause of sickness leave, impacting personal wellbeing and the region’s economy. This is highlighted as a Mayoral priority across YNYCA with the programme funding projects to: 

• Promote approaches that focus on men’s strengths and abilities to improve wellbeing. 

• Tackle stigma through male friendly engagement. 

• Reach diverse or hard to reach audiences, particularly in rural areas, neurodivergent young people, gender diverse people, men affected by trauma or adverse childhood experiences, and those in the justice system. 

• Enhance the digital presence and services in mental health. 

Our mapping work was the first stage to see what services and provision are men’s specific and where gaps lie. We explored all areas across the Combined Authority area, noting differences across cities, towns, rural areas, and more affluent areas, speaking to local organisations to get a feel for what is happening on the ground and the types of people accessing their services. We used Kumu to visualize the services as above. 

Through the process, a series of recommendations emerged about how YNYCA can even better support men’s mental health through their innovative funding approach. While YNYCA are the first combined authority to do this, we know others are considering what their role might be in funding more innovative, community-based services that support men’s mental health through system improvement and reform.  

• Strengthening local collaboration and knowledge sharing; by creating regional networks for service providers to share updates and best practices, and to coordinate efforts. 

• Improving referral pathways and service navigation; by developing a referral framework and digital navigation tool to simplify access and coordination.  

• Progressing actions across the wide social determinants of mental health; taking a broad public health approach will be helpful for framing and action planning, alongside targeted actions to address gaps in support and provision.  

• Co-designing services with communities; to encourage involvement of communities and individuals with living experience in the design of services. 

• Tackling stigma through gender-informed engagement; support initiatives that use sport, hobbies, and operate in spaces that engage the target audience in mental health conversations. 

• Investing in support for young people, including neurodivergent young people; taking a preventative approach and tailoring support programmes. 

Our recommendations

You can follow what else YNYCA are doing as leaders in the move to better support men’s mental health here, including reading our report.  

At Rocket Science we continue to strive towards better and more purposeful wellbeing and mental health outcomes amongst all people and are committed to ensuring we develop evidence that can contribute to more informed decision making and drive change.  

If you want to chat about how we can help you understand and improve your local system or people within it, get in touch with Jamal or Maddy.