Men’s Health and Wellbeing in New Zealand

This literature review was prompted by concerns in Canterbury about the  lack of engagement by mental health professionals with the issue men’s experience of male childhood sexual abuse. Feedback by mental health professionals inside the CDHB (local health board) is that it is best not to address  men’s experience of childhood sexual abuse while inside the mental health system because research shows that it doesn’t help them/ re-traumatises them.

The review was conducted by Silas Thielmann as part of his social work student placement. It found that there was no support in the literature for the above position and that the literature showed quite the opposite. He found that the trauma that men experience in the form of chidhood sexual abuse is being under addresed by the range of professionals that deal with mental health, and that there is a case for social workers, mental health workers, and counsellors to more actively screen and work with men’s childhood sexual abuse.

Professional responses to male survivors of childhood sexual abuse

Dads and Smoking Cessation is the summary of a pilot project that coaches fathers of new babies to stop smoking. They appeared to have a remarkable success rate and if it’s repeatable it could be a worthwhile way to alter smoking patterns in the broader community.