Exploring men’s distress and help-seeking within male-dominated workplaces

Systematic Literature Review

Eighteen articles examining mental health help-seeking of men within male-dominated occupations were identified and subjected to a systematic analysis. A narrative synthesis was used, selected with a focus on conceptualisation, measurement tools, and predictors. Eleven distinct measurement tools were identified to measure help-seeking across the papers, precluding meta-analysis. Predictors included mental health awareness, workplace factors, wellbeing, rurality, and stigma-related barriers. Interventions capitalised on mental health awareness, self-help, connection, and feedback. This review highlights the disparate nature of relevant literature, making a clear conceptualisation challenging. Future research in this area should aim for greater coherence in application of measurement tools, underpinned by models of help-seeking, permitting more nuanced and complete understanding of these processes in mainly male workforces.

Research Paper

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to explore six men’s experiences of losing a colleague to suicide within the construction industry. Three super-ordinate themes were identified: The stronger the better in this industry’ described a cultural context that privileges dominance and stigmatises help-seeking; ‘Responding to loss’ depicted variations in emotional responses, and a need for connection from peers/company; and ‘Learning and Evolving’, which depicted a hope to learn from their experience. Findings were discussed in relation to previous existing research and theory. Suggested implications from this study may be used to develop experience and theory driven postvention protocols.