We are shamefully ignoring the plight of middle-aged men

When it comes to mental health, there’s a group of people we are systematically letting down. no, not ethnic minorities, gay people or women, but middle-aged men.

Doctors, campaigners and politicians all ignore them and as a result many are living in misery, blighted by mental illness that goes unnoticed and untreated.

It’s a myth that younger men are the most likely to kill themselves. In fact, the suicide rate among middle-aged men is far higher. There is mounting evidence of the mental problems this group is enduring — but nothing is being done.

According to a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies this week, middle-aged people — mainly men — are increasingly likely to die ‘deaths of despair’ as a result of low earnings, loneliness and family breakdown. These deaths — from suicide and drug and alcohol abuse — have been on the increase for decades in the U.S. and the report suggests the same pattern is emerging here.

But what is really shocking is that rates of suicide are rising in middle-aged men — in stark contrast to the decline in deaths from physical conditions such as cancer and heart disease. This is being blamed on the increasing divide between rich and poor, but it doesn’t explain why men are disproportionately affected.

Men are blamed for not talking about their problems, but I also think social shifts have resulted in a generation that feels left behind.

Many middle-aged blokes from poorer communities feel they have fewer opportunities than in previous generations, and that their status and security has been undermined. For decades the professions most at risk of suicide were doctors, dentists, vets and lawyers, but when the economic downturn came in 2008, it was blue-collar workers who were hit.

Steve Dymond, who took his own life after appearing on the Jeremy Kyle Show, was a digger driver who’d split up with his fiancée. And while we have no idea exactly what drove him to suicide, he had apparently been suffering mental health problems for some time.

A major reason middle-aged working class men feel so isolated today is that in society’s rush to embrace diversity, they have been ignored. It’s simply not fashionable to champion them. Middle-aged men aren’t a progressive or trendy cause, so their needs aren’t prioritised or even considered.

I’ve had training courses on the health needs of every demographic imaginable, from the disabled, to the transgender community, and asylum seekers.

But I have never been to a session on the problems facing middle-aged working class men, even though when I worked in drug and alcohol services they were by far the largest group of patients.

These men almost all had the same story to tell: they had been married or living with someone, had children, the relationship broke down, they had to leave the family home, they lost their job. They felt redundant and alone. They turned to drink or drugs to fill the void and their lives spiralled out of control.

what struck me was that when I worked with homeless people I came across them again — countless middle-aged men who had sunk to the very bottom.

This group of men has some of the highest rates of mental distress — yet the lowest level of antidepressant prescriptions. This should shock us all. It shows that, for all the advances in encouraging people to talk about their mental health problems, where these men are concerned the revolution has yet to happen.

we have turned our back on them and ignored their suffering.