On the eve of the PM’s XI, Menslink CEO Martin Fisk addressed a pre-game reception at the Lodge hosted by the Prime Minister and Tim Mathieson. His speech looks at problems faced by young men – especially the high rate of suicide – and includes a touching story of a single mum and her teenage son who came to Menslink looking for help….
“On behalf of Menslink and the young men we support, I would like to thank and acknowledge the Prime Minister, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland, Cricket ACT Chairman Ian McNamee, Captains Ricky Ponting and Darren Sammy and of course the first bloke Tim Mathieson for this tremendous honour.
Menslink celebrated its tenth birthday last year and in that time we have helped over a thousand young Canberran men reach their full potential. Young men who are socially isolated, at risk of disengaging from society, or who just need a hand getting through difficult times with the least amount of harm to themselves and those around them.
Our first point of contact with these young men is often through their mums. Single mums like Renee, who sent us this email earlier last year:
Good Evening,
I’m really struggling with my teenage son (Sean 14). He’s skipping classes at school, smoking, disrespectful and very lazy. I’ve tried talking to him, had him in counselling and nothing seems to work. I’m a single parent with two boys and trying to hold down my full time job with the stress of Sean. I get calls from his school almost daily, and I can’t take the stress anymore. His father has chosen not to be a part of his life. I’ve tried to get his dad to help support him and have access to him, but I just get abused. Sean was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 6 years old; he constantly stirs his brother up and fights.
Can you please contact me and offer some assistance before I have a breakdown.
Renee
Young Sean is a not a bad kid. But he does need guidance. And without that guidance he runs the risk of coming seriously off the rails: dropping out of school, violence, crime, alcohol abuse, drugs or worse. That’s where Menslink comes in. We provide free mentoring and counselling to young men like Sean. Helping to reduce their social isolation, providing them with guidance, positive male role models and helping them get through tough times.
Why focus on young men?
Despite what you might think, young men are doing it tough. The statistics are overwhelmingly stacked against them, compared to their female counterparts:
- Nearly one in five of them (17%) do not live with their fathers, so don’t have a consistent family male role model
- They suffer the same rates of mental illness as young women (around 25%) but are three times less likely to get help for it
- School drop-out rates (nearly double)
- Youth unemployment and illicit drug use (around 20% higher)
- Juvenile justice system (9:1 ratio), rising to an astounding 24:1 in the adult system
- Finally, Suicide (where four out of every five deaths are male). Suicide remains the leading cause of male death in every age category from 15 to 44. In fact, 1,816 men took their own lives in 2010 compared with the national road toll in the same year of only 1,368. Most of these men were younger than me.
Too many young men are finding themselves beset by depression and anxiety. Too many young men respond to their problems with alcohol, drugs, violence and crime. Too many young men take their own lives when things seem hopeless and they don’t have the support networks to see them through. In fact, just today five men around the country died by suicide. And tomorrow another five will. And again….
At Menslink, we believe prevention is much more effective than intervention later on once problems have got out of hand. We can’t replace fathers, but we do respond to cries for help. And of course our mentoring and counselling services are free to anyone in need. Menslink gets young men back on track when they stumble. We provide support and guidance to help them avoid being part of these statistics.
Menslink preventative programs cost as little as $5,000 per young man per year. Yet the community cost of a heavy drug user or career criminal can be as high as $2 million. Prevention can not only be more effective but thousands of times cheaper as well.
Let me finish by talking about just one of these young men. A young man who has started on the journey back to positive choices and engagement. A young man with great potential. His name is Sean. You might remember him from earlier in my speech. Again I’ll let his mum Renee do the talking:
Since Sean commenced the program, I have already seen some changes in his behaviour. He’s been getting on better with his younger brother and turning the TV off in the afternoons to go outside and play with him. I don’t get nearly as many calls from his school. These are huge steps and I’m really impressed. While it’s early days, seeing the small changes in Sean so far, I’ll be enrolling my other son Jason into the program next year. Sean has since said to me that he now wants to be a mentor for other boys without a dad in their lives. This made me really proud and I’m very glad that I found Menslink. I believe more families in the future should seek out Menslink for their sons.
Prime Minister, Tim, ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for this opportunity.
We’re honoured to be named match day charity for the PMs XI. We’re keen to use the publicity surrounding the game to raise awareness of the issues facing young men, our high suicide rate and how Menslink supports young blokes and their families. We really appreciate your public support. Because we believe every young man deserves a great innings.”