promoting health for AYA males
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Weekly News Roundup
November 21, 2016
Dennis J. Barbour, JD, Editor
__________________________________________________________

Special Note
Mixed Messages;
The Election and Young Men's Health

 

I'm writing to you as a regular reader of the Weekly News Roundup to ask you to show your appreciation of its value by making a donation to an important new program we plan to launch, with your support and direct involvement.

I hope you will be patient with I am about to say by my first saying that we are not just asking for a donation, but for involvement in our program with or without a donation to it.

As a regular reader you already know that the Partnership's mission is to strengthen young males through better health care and encouragement of healthy behaviors and attitudes. As a group, young males have already begun down this path, in part by adopting healthier norms of masculinity.  Today increasing numbers of young men understand that masculinity has everything to do with confidence and caring and nothing to do with condescension and conquest.

Unfortunately, the raw and brutish rhetoric of this year's election and the disturbing events that have followed indicate that intolerant and abusive behavior toward those that fall outside of "traditional norms" may become more acceptable, if not normalized. As I've written here, this includes many young males who are struggling to define their own masculinity, in their own way. The backdrop of an election that has given power to more archaic notions of masculinity only serves to undermine their struggle.  

It is therefore more important than ever that we engage in efforts to encourage positive male youth development and demonstrate that certain male behaviors and attitudes are not only unacceptable but are unhealthy.

One of those concrete efforts that we are inaugurating, with your help, is called "Speaking for Myself"  The program will engage young males to send us a video describing what they think it means to be a man. Those videos will be posted on our social media platforms and the narrators of the best videos will be invited to submit a proposal on how they would spread their video message in their school, community or wherever young males can be found. Young males with the best proposals will be provided a small grant to implement their ideas.

Even if you are not able to support our program with a donation I would urge you to sponsor a candidate by emailing me at dbarbour@partnershipformaleyouth.org. Each of us can participate in supporting our young males in this challenging time. 
 
If you are able, please consider helping us with this program by sending a contribution to the Partnership for "Speaking for Myself". We welcome contributions large or small. Even a $1 contribution will show your support. We also encourage you to enroll as a long-term supporter by signing up for an automatic monthly contribution. All the funds that we raise will be dedicated to this program.

To get started, click here. Contributions are tax deductible.
 
Thanks so much for your ongoing support of our mission and our work.

Dennis
New report: Men are three times more likely than women to take their own lives.

The unequal impacts of mental health issues on men in the UK are revealed today in a landmark report into the causes of male suicide. The research, carried out by the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and  The Huffington Post UK, and released as part of the Building Modern Men   campaign, highlights how men struggle differently to women in life and specifically to mental health problems. CALM's latest Masculinity Audit reveals that men are not only less likely than women to open up to friends about being depressed, they're also more likely to exhibit risk-taking behaviour and feel more frustrated at life's challenges, like losing a job. Launched ahead of   International Men's Day , the audit details how barely half of men who admitted to feeling "very depressed" had told anyone about it, compared with 67% of women who did, bringing to light a parallel gender difference in how men and women respond to life's low points. The findings coincide with new UK-wide statistics, compiled by CALM and HuffPost UK, that reveal suicide remains the single biggest killer of British males under the age of 45. The data shows that over 4,500 men kill themselves every year in Britain, with men three times more likely than women to take their own lives. Experts believe the audit highlights how men lack the "language" to talk about their mental health, meaning doctors may be failing to spot key danger signs.
Huffington Post UK, November 17, 2016

  1. HIV is hard to neutralize since it changes is surface proteins so often 
  2. But now scientists have discovered an antibody called N6 which can neutralize 16 out of 20 antibody-resistant HIV strains
  3. Uniquely, N6 can tolerate most changes in the HIV envelope
  4. Scientists hope it could be re-purposed to treat and prevent HIV
Daily Mail, November 16, 2016

Now that it has come to pass, what to say to a kid who heard Trump's "build a wall" statement in real time and called him on it vehemently? A kid who formed his own opinion of who was the better candidate, landing firmly on Hillary Clinton. So when Trump became the President-elect, what could my son learn from his chosen candidate's loss? These are my suggested takeaways.
Huffington Post, November 14, 2016
Parents are insisting on doctors who insist on vaccinations

"These are young parents and they're saying, 'I'm so glad about your policy. . . . I don ' t understand why people don ' t vaccinate their kids, ' " Helm recalled. " That kind of spontaneous comment did not used to happen." After years of meeting hesi­ta­tion or reluctance from parents, he said, "it's just nice to hear parents say that - that they want their children to be vaccinated."
Washington Post, November 12, 2016
The Weekly News Roundup is produced by The Partnership for Male Youth and is released every Monday. 
For more information contact Dennis J. Barbour, JD. News Roundup editor and President/CEO of the Partnership, at dbarbour@partnershipformaleyouth.org.

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