NHS Bristol initiative to meet Equality Act's duty on men's health

MHF CEO Peter Baker addressed the NHS Bristol Men’s Health and Wellbeing conference this week.

The Men’s Health and Wellbeing initiative was set up by NHS Bristol to meet the 'gender equality duty' requirements placed upon it by the Equality Act 2006 and which are now incorporated in the Equality Act 2010.

The conference, attended by some 100 people, was part of an initiative which has included a study of national and local evidence around men’s health and wellbeing and will now see the development of a multi-agency Men’s Health and Wellbeing Stakeholder Group to develop a set of key objectives for promoting men’s health and wellbeing and to ensure that these objectives inform local policy making and service development.

Stakeholder Group

'It was a great conference,' said Peter. 'This is just the sort of inititiative we want to see across the country. The NHS has a duty to address inequalities and an organised, evidence-based approach like this is the best way to do it as far as the missing men in health care are concerned.'

David Harris, senior equality advisor at NHS Bristol said: 'As a result of the conference, we have had several offers from individuals who would like to continue to support the next two key elements of this work: forming the stakeholder group and carrying out a community engagement project. This latter project aims to both inform the work of the stakeholder group and to help us to close the gaps between health messages/health services and men “out there” in communities and workplaces.'