Samaritans and Brighton & Hove Albion team up to shine a light on men’s mental health

A powerful new video produced in partnership between suicide prevention charity Samaritans and Premier League football team Brighton & Hove Albion has highlighted the difficulties many have speaking out about their own mental health issues.

Samaritans and Brighton & Hove Albion: #TogetherAgainstSuicide

Produced as part of the #TogetherAgainstSuicide initiative, it presents an obviously troubled man and his friend attending a Brighton match. He vents his distress amidst the roar of the crowd but no one appears to hear, though ultimately his friend does realise something is wrong, prompting the unwell man to confide about his difficulties. The production highlights the reservations men often experience opening up about mental health struggles, which partly explains the striking differences between male and female rates of suicide.

According to the most recent statistics for the North of Ireland from Samaritans:

171 (77.4%) suicides in 2023 were by males, and 50 (22.6%) were females.

The overall suicide rate was 13.3 per 100,000. The rate for the 26 counties was significantly lower with a rate of 8.6 per 100,000, though again a striking disparity between male and female deaths exists, with figures of 79% and 21% respectively.

The alarming statistics for the North show an increase on the previous year’s rate of 12.3 suicides per 100,000 people. Findings from the Mental Health Champion Siobhan O’Neill also showed shocking data, with a 2023 report indicating:

45.2% of 16-year-olds in NI have probable mental ill-health (female 52.9%, males 32.8%).

The Mental Health Champion’s role is to:

further the mental health agenda across Northern Ireland, to promote emotional health and wellbeing, access evidence-based support and services, and promote recovery.

Sticking plasters amid the gaping wound of austerity

She recently criticised Stormont’s failure to improve the mental wellbeing of people in the six counties, saying:

I continue to be disappointed and frustrated with the slow pace of change in the transformation of mental health services. Since its launch in 2021, the Mental Health Strategy has received only a small fraction of the necessary funding.

This week saw the closure of Extern NI’s community crisis intervention service (CCIS), again due to a lack of financing. The BBC reported that “more than 3,000 people had used the crisis service over the last three-and-a-half years in the north west”, quoting Derry and Strabane Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) councillor Brian Tierney.

While the initiative from Samaritans and Brighton & Hove Albion FC does provide a moving and destigmatising portrayal of mental anguish, such well-meaning efforts are but sticking plasters on the gaping wound of austerity, which continues to have fatal consequences every day.

Feature image via screengrab.