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Leeds Beckett Professor heads-up Movember research
Professor Steve Robertson, who is also Co-Director of the University’s Centre for Men’s Health, will submit his team’s findings to the Movember Foundation where it will be used to help them consider where they are best placed to invest the £2.5m they have committed to supporting boys’ and men’s mental wellbeing in the UK.
Every year, millions of men worldwide grow moustaches during November as part of Movember campaigns to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health issues.
The Movember Foundation has supported more than 800 men’s health programmes. With the Leeds Beckett research project the Foundation’s priorities are mental health prevention, early support and removing stigma, which they see as key areas where health services are failing men.
Professor Robertson commented: “We are delighted to have been commissioned by Movember to undertake the research for such an important national health project. Movember is investing more than £2.5m in mental health in the UK, and Leeds Beckett has been involved in their latest project in two ways.
“We did some initial landscape work, filling them in on the state of mental health in Britain and then that led onto the current work which is more evidence-based.
“Movember are interested in early intervention, preventative measures and stigma, and we have been looking at published evidence in relation to these things as well as gathering tacit knowledge, such as knowledge residing with people who have been working in the mental health field for years. What we uncover from this research will help direct the money invested by Movember.”
Professor Robertson added that once the research report was submitted to Movember at the end of November, there would be further discussion with the Foundation about the ways in which their findings could be disseminated to the public.