When Len Blair joined the men's shed at Ulverstone in 2011 he didn't realise it would end up saving his life.

He was suffering from severe depression after a neck injury left him with nerve damage and partial paralysis.

"I'm not ashamed to admit it, I was very close to suicide, often thought about it, and looked at ways of doing it," he said.

"Since I've been at the men's shed and held a position in the executive I've kept myself really busy, and basically it's cured me. I'm a changed person.

"It was the comradeship, talking to people again my same age and being able to relate with people out of the same industries, and we all had a lot in common."

On Wednesday Mr Blair will join dozens of other Men's Shed members from north-west Tasmania to attend a workshop in Campbell Town aimed at preventing men from taking their own lives.

Men coming together to help men

The workshop titled "Working Together to Prevent Male Suicide" is funded by Primary Health Tasmania, which is overseeing the national Suicide Prevention Trial sites in Tasmania's north-west, Launceston and the Break O'Day council area, targeted at men aged 40-64 and men and woman aged 65 and over.

In 2017, 80 Tasmanians took their own lives and the suicide rate was three times higher for men than women.

Men's Resources Tasmania president Jonathan Bedloe says men often have worse health and educational outcomes than women ( Supplied: Men’s Resources Tasmania )

The alarming statistic inspired Men's Resources Tasmania (MRT) to convene Wednesday's workshop in Campbell Town.

MRT president Jonathan Bedloe said as well has having a higher suicide rate, men in Tasmania often face poorer health and education outcomes than women and their life expectancy is shorter.

"We think that means we need to focus on men and actually look at how men connect with their community, how they experience suicidal thoughts and behaviours that might be different from women," he said.

"A lot of the services that are out there might actually be better at supporting women, they may be run by women or set up by women, and that's really good, we need those services and they're very valid, but we think there hasn't been quite the same focus on working to support men and that's what we're aiming for."

Primary Health Tasmania's health stream lead, Grant Akesson, said the workshop fits the suicide prevention trial's aim of promoting the work of local health and wellbeing services.

"Particularly there's a focus on providing a message to participants around what can you do when you leave the workshop that's going to make a difference to, in this case, men in your community," he said.

Problem-solving approach most successful

The workshop will be led by Glen Poole from Stop Male Suicide, which is a support and training company.

Glen Poole from Stop Male Suicide says men are most vulnerable when they're dealing with crises in their family, work or finances. ( Supplied: Stop Male Suicide )

He said although most people assume suicide is related to mental health problems, the majority of male suicides are linked to specific crises around family, work and finances.

"A very common one is relationship breakdown, but also anything to do with distress around work or not having work, or financial issues, these are all common factors that we find in male suicides," Mr Poole said.

He said the most successful suicide prevention programs for men focus on solving the problems that are causing them distress.

Men experience suicidal thoughts and behaviours that might be different from women, say support groups. ( Supplied: Parents Beyond Breakup )

"Sometimes we tend to focus on if only men would talk about their feelings more, or talk about their mental health issues more, then that would help us prevent suicide," he said.

"The thing is, if men who suicide are mostly dealing with life crises, then we find it's actually those crisis they need support with, not necessarily their feelings around those issues."

'Alive and in kids' lives'

Another of the organisations taking part in the workshop, Parents Beyond Breakup, describes its mission in stark terms.

Parents Beyond Breakup CEO Pete Nicholls hopes to expand the organisation's services into Tasmania. ( Supplied: Parents Beyond Breakup )

"It's keeping parents — mums and dads — alive, and in their kids lives," CEO Pete Nicholls said.

"Primarily we're about suicide prevention for one of the highest at-risk groups in Australia for suicide, which is mums and dads going through traumatic separation."

Parents Beyond Breakup operates a hotline for parents in distress and runs peer-led discussion groups.

The organisation wants to expand its services to Tasmania and is searching for volunteers to lead the groups, as well to raise money and awareness.

"We operate almost exclusively with volunteers, so it's peers helping peers, so it's people who've gone through it themselves and have come through it and are willing to help people who are going through it currently."

Mr Nicholls said it's also looking for venues and wants to connect with local service providers.

"So that when parents turn up at their local GPs saying I'm stressed, I can't cope, instead of being given pills or therapy they're actually directed towards us," he said.