Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month is a waste of time

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, in my opinion, is a waste of time. Every June, it returns to the calendar and passes with little more than token gestures. We tick the box, hold a few events, and then move on. But where is the meaningful change? Where is the urgency? Like Father’s Day, ironically, in the same month, the silence around supporting men is deafening.

Men continue to suffer, their struggles trivialised as jokes or reduced to casual talking points. These are the same men who sacrifice daily for their families, yet their pain is dismissed. Men are too often branded unworthy of compassion, judged collectively for the crimes and immoral actions of a few. This is not an excuse for men who commit harm. Those men must be held accountable. But how is it just that fathers, brothers, uncles, and sons are treated as less than dirt because some men are morally corrupt? It is not just. And yet society clings to this sweeping generalisation, justifying cruelty with prejudice.

The hostility towards men has created a mindset in which men’s mental health is dismissed as trivial, their struggles unseen. Some even believe men have no issues at all. This toxic ideology insists that men must be tough, macho, and silent, solving every problem alone. 

Boys are not being given the unconditional love and guidance they need to grow into strong, compassionate men. Too often, they are neglected, left to navigate volatile environments where crime, promiscuity, and violence dominate. If we want change, boys need to be nurtured, told that they matter. They must be shown how to be gentle. 

Instead, boys are taught to bury their emotions and fight with their fists. We invest more in the upbringing of girls, more in their character, moral, and educational development, while leaving boys behind in silence. 

Only by reaching boys early can the tree be bent while it is young. If we fail to act, we condemn another generation of men to silence, suffering, and self-destruction. But if we choose to love, guide, and protect boys, we can raise men who are whole, strong, who will not depart from the path of goodness.

Men’s mental health is a societal crisis. Until its confronted, the silence will destroy lives, families, and futures.

TERRAIN WRIGHT 

wrightterrain@yahoo.com