New campaign gets men fighting for their health
The M5 Project is a bold new national campaign that will encourage men to talk about their health with their GP and to make their health a priority, was launched on March 5, by The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).
The launch was held in Sydney at Target Carlingford Court. The name of the campaign reflects on the fact that more than five men die prematurely each hour in Australia from potentially preventable illness. The M5 Project has set an ambitious target to cut this figure from five to zero and is using the number ‘five’ to break down the barriers that stop Australian men from going to see a GP with the hope of saving men’s lives.
The campaign was launched by singer and performer Jon Stevens, who recently discovered he had heart disease when seeing his GP for a health check. Stevens, aged 45, had gone for a general check up when his GP found an anomaly in his heart and an 80 per cent blockage in his arteries. The condition, if left untreated, could have killed him.
“I felt tired all the time, but just thought I had been working hard. Now I know how close I came to dying and leaving my two kids without a father, it has made me want to encourage every man over 40 to visit their GP and just start talking about their health,” he said.
The M5 Project is the result of a collaboration between the RACGP, The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, non-government organisations and other key stake-holders in the men’s health area. The campaign is a joint effort to decrease the number of men dying from preventable illnesses every day.
Highlighting the five key roles that men play throughout their life – as fathers, sons, brothers, partners and friends, The M5 Project encourages men to look after their health and that of the other significant men in their life.
As a start men can take five preventative steps:
- Share your family history with your doctor
- Know your healthy weight and work towards it
- Check your blood pressure
- Stop smoking – it’s the only healthy option
- Maintain a healthy mind and a healthy body
Men can get involved in many ways – you can find all the latest information on men’s health on http://www.m5project.com.au, print off a poster and put it up in the lunch room, office, club room or workplace and spread the message. Or you can have a chat with a mate. All it takes is five minutes to get involved and get people thinking.
The M5 Project website also has a link to the RACGP Practice Directory which allows you to find a GP close to your home or workplace.
The campaign is also inviting women to get involved. Women can help by encouraging the men in their life to go to The M5 Project website which acts as a central hub for information on men’s health.
The task of getting Australian men to focus on their health is not an easy one as many men do not have a relationship with a doctor nor do they rank their own health as a high priority.
Dr Chris Mitchell, RACGP President, said that The M5 Project is critical as many men simply don’t look after themselves, don’t talk about their health with their mates and don’t have a regular doctor that they visit to discuss their health concerns.
“Men face a higher death rate than women when it comes to cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, respiratory disease and mental health problems including suicide and accidents. We tend to present later with health problems, visit our GP less frequently and when we do, we have shorter consultations and are less likely to come in for preventative health checks,” said Dr Mitchell.
“It is clear that we need to get men talking and make them more comfortable in visiting a GP. Once there in the surgery, we need to give men the confidence to open up and ask the real health-specific questions that are bothering them.
“We know we have set ourselves a huge goal to reduce preventable male deaths to zero. This campaign is a call to action for all men to help us meet this challenge,” said Dr Mitchell.
The launch of The M5 Project is just the beginning of an ongoing push to improve the health of men around Australia. The launch will act as a national kick-off for a number of promotions and activities designed to highlight early intervention, lifestyle changes and testing for a range of conditions that will improve the health, wellbeing and lifespan of men across Australia.
The M5 Project, which has been created by the RACGP with seed funding from The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, has already drawn together a diverse group of health organisations all focused on ensuring men live long and rich lives.
