Men’s Health Matters – In the Home, at the Park and in the Workplace!

This week is Men’s Health Week in Canada supported by the guys over at the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation. BCAHL, and especially those of us working on the WoW project, couldn’t agree more with their tagline – ‘Men’s Health Matters’.

And we love their approach to include men’s health as an added component of family health.  In the week leading up to Father’s Day, I think we can all agree that healthier dads are a priority. Our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau does! He’s added his support to Men’s Health Week this year and has called on Canadian men to make small changes to get healthier.

BCAHL has spent the last three years engaging men in places where it’s easier to find them than  doctors’ offices: their workplaces. This is where most Canadian men spend half their waking hours, so what better way to reach them with health information?

But a captive audience isn’t enough – men don’t always listen  – so we’ve taken a lesson from CMHF’s “Don’t Change Much” campaign and worked to keep our workplace messages simple and easy to act on.

We’ve listened to the guys in our pilot worksites about what they need. And they want easy step-by-step tips to improve their health. Employers can start making the healthy choice, an easier choice in the workplace by providing employees with opportunities to eat healthy, be physically active, reduce their stress and be sun safe.   This is healthy for the bottom line too – making health a priority provides a great return on investment in healthier, happier employees.

If you want to get started right away or even start a conversation at your workplace – check out our WoW modules targeted at men in industrial work sites – simple, easy tips to get them to ‘take care of their equipment – like their hearts, lungs and arteries!’