How healthy is your relationship?

The MHF is backing a national awareness campaign encouraging men to seek help for relationship problems.

The new initiative from Relate, the UK’s largest provider of relationship support, seeks to remind men that relationship counselling is for them as well as women.

Humorous posters using the catchphrase ‘Is the big game more important than your other half?’ will be hung up in the male washrooms of 44 leading football and rugby clubs in the UK.

The amusing question and answer cycles encourage men to seek professional help and support in matters such as sex life, arguments, affairs, self-esteem, being a parent, and the balance between work and private life.

Free, immediate advice

Connected to the campaign is Relate’s new micro-website www.wheresyourhead.org offering a free live chat service, the possibility for men to test how well they actually get on with their partner, and helpful tips on how to deal with family and partnership issues. Men are urged to contact Relate for advice if they are not satisfied with their partnerships.

Counsellor Graeme Armstrong said: ‘We hope that anyone who sees our information whilst having a pee will take a few extra minutes to think about their relationship. If things aren’t working the way they want them to, give Relate a call.’

With this campaign, the MHF and Relate take an important step towards men, who are often more hesitant in seeking help themselves, by ‘taking the resources directly to them’, as Relate chief executive Ruth Sutherland puts it.

The advertising campaign runs from January to March 2013 and will include the publication of a research report written with the MHF focussing on best-practice guidelines on how to support men’s relationships and their needs in case of relationship break downs.