When you first enter the Men Matter Hub it is said to be the most difficult part at their reception desk, they have a sign in sheet but what they get everyone to do is to add in what their battery is at.
What this means is that they want to know what your mental battery is, and this has helped them best support all the different guys that come through their doors. And when you leave you do it again which lets them know what progress was made that day.
With the current state of the NHS waiting times, it is leaving a lot of people in limbo waiting for mental health support, they are being left with the decision of either having to go private or just simply wait.
Glasgow is one of many cities in Scotland that has huge numbers of suicides, drug related issues and homelessness. And studies show that in all these the rate is higher in men.
Men Matter Scotland have been working hard over the past six years building their charity to help men out there who feel hopeless and are seriously struggling who feel they are being failed by the system.
When you enter the hub for the first time you are taken on a guided two by a staff volunteer who will give you a brief history of the hub which is also depicted on a painted wall mural which was painted my one of the members Mark,
you are then guided round the rest of the building as they talk you through the classes and the use of the space. The main area has a lounge area for the members to relax and chat in between classes and there is also a small gym a music room and a pool table in the lounge. On the walls were pictures of all the staff and volunteers and under every picture was their story.
There is also a foodbank on site for anyone who is having financial difficulties as well as showers for the members to use if they need it.
On one of the walls in front of a pool table was a memorial wall of men that have lost their struggle to mental health or addiction. And the staff member said ‘that most of them never actually made it to hub a lot of them were told to the hub by the family members.
In June they will be taken all the families on a trip to ben Nevis with the goal of bringing them together
Fraser Devine, operations lead at Men matter spoke about the mission of Men Matter and what they are all about and shared his own struggle. He said, ‘I’ve survived suicide 7 times and i am in recovery from cocaine and alcohol addiction’.
Men matter has been around for six years now and back in 2019 is when Fraser and two other guys set up the charity, before it was ever Men Matter Scotland it was a group called Dads matter and Fraser at the time was working for a year and was sober for 3 years when he was approached by a guy who kept telling him to come to the dad group with his child and Fraser said ‘am no going to a group, i don’t go to groups am fae the scheme’ but he decided to go anyway and he actually saw improvements in his child’s behaviour and he met a lot of positive male role models.
When the funding eventually ended for that group Fraser and two others still felt that there wasn’t enough help Fraser and they said to each other ‘there is nothing more men never mind just dads’ it was in his own opinion that for men when you seek out help for your mental health you simply get hit with medication like Anti-depressants and diazepam there is no kind of therapy unless you are on a high salary and you can afford to pay for it all.
The three of them decided that they want to help themselves and to help other men in similar situations to their own, so they started gathering guys for hill walks, litter picks and football to get guys together.
From there they started a men’s talking group in a charity shop in their local area not far from the hub. The purpose of that was to smash the idea that men cannot talk about how they feel.
Despite none of them having prior experience running a charity before they were determined to make it work so they simply started out by organising hill walks and football days for local guys and getting out into the community and talking to men, which they still do now.
Fraser gave up his job so that he could put all his focus and energy into getting Men Matter going. And at the time they had been out in 70 searches with 4 being fatal and 66 being successful. The space was owned by the pub round the corner, and it was in September they got the keys to the place with £250 in their pocket.
With them having low funds they couldn’t afford to furnish the place, so they instead asked around for people giving furniture away. And little by little they began filling the space and adapting it to suit the needs of the guys coming through.
From there it grew into a functioning charity hub with many great classes, and they are constantly evolving the space to suit the needs of the guys and within the past five years they have had 3,500 men walk through the door seeking help and a sense of belonging.
The way the hub is run with the classes is that throughout the week there is a series of different classes and this changes up every month and the reason for this change is to keep it flown and it helps the guys get exactly what they need most so if the guys aren’t getting a lot out of one class they will change it.
Some of the classes that are on are as follows: mindset coaching, moving forward coaching, NLP, trauma therapy, yoga, breath work, sound bath, anxiety classes…
In 2021 they managed to secure funding from the national lottery which was helped by a member who came to the guys at the time seeking help and he was a businessman and because he felt grateful to the team he wanted to know how he could help and they took him on to set up the board team who could help with the funding of the charity which secured them the fund from the national lottery.
Martin and Nev two of the staff are the ones who now get paid who help run the classes and structure them.
Out with the hub the charity has a street team who are tasked with travelling all over Glasgow the nearby forests and canals seeking to find guys who need help who may be contemplating suicide at the time and are pointed towards the hub for that support and these searches will last a long time throughout the day.
The hub takes in each month at least 450-500 people walk through the doors each week Monday to Sunday each with their own battle and journey and the length in which they stay depends on how long the need is there. Before the hub used to try and help with everything from helping them into work safe accommodation etc. Because of the load Men Matter work with many companies throughout Glasgow who can provide all extra support needs for the guys.
Prisons in Scotland are facing a lot of problems too with the mental health war in Scottish prisons there is a lot of death to suicide and overdose. A report made by the university of Glasgow in 2022 found that there had been a record of 121 deaths since the start of 2020, with suicide and drugs deaths on the rise. The rate of suicide and drugs deaths in Scottish jails is significantly higher than in England, the report said. at the time the Scottish Prison service said it worked to give people the best possible care and wellbeing.
When asked about the state of prisons he said ‘we know that guys in prison, it is just a vicious circle, you come out, you have no got a house to go to and your back into whatever you were into and then your back jail again’.
Barlinnie prison in Glasgow came to Men Matter a few months ago to ask for help and asked the hub to offer classes, and Fraser said he would set up a talking group in the prison which runs fortnightly and has been a great success.
With funding constantly being taken away from mental health it has put a huge strain on charities like men matter and the NHS as well. He spoke about the strain this had had on the charity he talked about a young 14-year-olds family who contacted the charity who told them that they were self-harming and wanting to die and when they went to the hospital about this the hospital suggested to just remove all the knifes from the house as it is a 18 month waiting time for a child to be seen.
A lot of the guys at the hub who are going through their battle have nothing but praise for what me many spoke openly about their battles with addiction and suicide and one the staff volunteers spoke about his story.
Pat was a children’s entertainer for 32 years and he eventually concluded that he was hiding behind a mask and focusing on other people’s happiness his health took a sharp turn when he suffered a mini stroke and from there his mental health greatly declined and later, he was diagnosed with intrusive thoughts which led him down a dark path which led him to want to take his own life “ I would the helpline, the crises line and they would tell me to have a bath but this was two attempts of trying to throw myself into the canal and the Clyde”
When I walked into the hub at the start of the day my battery level was at 60% as I did not know what conversations I was going to have but when I was leaving I left with it being 90% because even know the stuff that was spoken about was extremely heavy it left me with great hope that there is people out there fighting for men and the men who were once lost are doing well on the road to recovery.
Men Matter and all its members urges all the guys out there to just talk about it, and to find them at the hub in Drumchapel and come to begin the healing process.
