November is Men’s Health Awareness Month, also known as Movember, a time to spotlight men’s physical and mental wellbeing, break down stigma, and encourage early action on preventable health issues.
Movember started as a light-hearted challenge to grow moustaches for charity. But it’s now a global movement tackling prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention.
You can be part of it by promoting awareness, open conversations, and proactive health checks for our service users and our staff. (P.S. You don’t have to grow a moustache!)
Did you know:
- Men in the most deprived areas are 81% more likely to die prematurely than those in the least deprived areas.
- 75% of UK suicides are by men.
- 1 in 8 men experience a common mental health issue like anxiety or depression, yet 40% have never spoken to anyone about how they feel.
- Around 52,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and 2,400 with testicular cancer each year in the UK — many are detected late. (If you’ve got them, make sure you check your testicles.)
These figures remind us: early action, open conversations, and mutual support can literally save lives.
Inpatient Screening Pathways
CNTW now has inpatient pathways for several national screening programmes, ensuring that people who are eligible for screening do not miss out because they are in hospital.
Men aged 65 and older are offered Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening to detect a life-threatening bulge in the aorta (the main artery in the abdomen. If an aneurysm is found, it can be monitored or treated early to prevent it from bursting. Men over 65 who haven’t been screened can request a scan.
CNTW’s Public Health Team manage our AAA inpatient pathway, working with the regional AAA screening hub to identify inpatients who may be due their screening. To access this and other Pathways search ‘Screening’ on the Trust’s Intranet.