UBC Nursing professor and founder of the UBC Men’s Health Research program, Dr. John Oliffe, received almost $3.0 million from Movember Canada. His research is one of several projects to share in $12 million in funding from Movember Canada with guidance from the Canadian Men’s Health Network (CMHN) to support men’s mental health initiatives.

Dr. Oliffe came to research this area while writing for grant funding back in 1997. Looking at published literature on the topic, he noted, “depression was underreported in men, men were diagnosed with depression at half the rate in which women were, the suicide rates were so much higher amongst men, up to four times that of women.”

“We felt this was discordant in many ways, and gathered our interests about investigating in what I refer to as the ‘blackbox, a pathway between depression and suicide that we don’t fully understand and if we could better understand how depression was and wasn’t diagnosed and managed then we might have a way to intervening around suicide prevention.”

The funding from Movember will support specific Masculinities and Men’s Depression and Suicide Network (MD&S-Net) research and five programs that will address men’s depression, prostate cancer recovery and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in veterans.

Project 1 is to develop a Men’s Depression-Help Yourself website with multiple online tools for depression management.

Project 2 is to extend the existing Vancouver based DUDES club (Downtown Urban Knights Defending Equality and Solidarity), a program for First Nations men, into other areas of B.C.

Project 3 will focus on the older men at risk of depression or suicide, this group is least likely to seek help and yet are at a higher risk for suicide. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of an existing program called Men’s Sheds which provide a masculine environment (woodworking, crafts, etc.) and age and gender appropriate mental health services. It will develop a toolkit available across Canada to enable Men’s Sheds to develop countrywide.

Project 4 is to support the existing group-based intervention program called the Veteran’s Transition Program for use by college men and sufferers of prostate cancer, the most common cancer to affect Canadian men.

Project 5 is called Man-Up Against Suicide, a photovoice method used to hear from men who have experienced suicidal thoughts, as well as men and women who have lost a male friend or family member to suicide. The Man Up Against Suicide photo exhibition was held at the Foster Eastman Gallery and will be traveling across Canada. The exhibit features photos from 25 people who have direct experience with a suicide attempt or contemplation. Visit the exhibit’s online gallery at www.manupagainstsuicide.ca