Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention 2008 research shows younger men are more at risk of suicide when separated. Recent findings from the Australian Institute of Family Studies show that men experience a greater degree of loneliness and isolation compared with women after a divorce.

On a slightly brighter note, I can testify that by far the majority of non-custodial parents I meet do eventually find a balance in their life, stepping up as best they can without losing their dignity. Less often are they able to maintain a robust and healthy connection with their children.

Extreme acts by fathers wanting to redress what they consider an injustice occasionally come to our attention; Michael Fox's 2011 Sydney Harbour Bridge protest, Ken Thompson's 2010 cycling trip through Europe to find his son. Thompson succeeded and was able to bring his son back under the same legal rights that an Italian father is currently trying to invoke to return his daughters to Italy. In this case the mother brought them to Australia for a holiday and then refused to return them. There's no doubt his extreme act is to survive the emotional, financial, legal, and logistical hardship that goes with fighting a somewhat bizarre court case in a foreign country.

Occasional outcries from desperate men are not to be confused with acts of violence in any form. It is painfully obvious that many men, and some women, too, commit acts of violence when under similar pressures. As a society we are doing some good things, and certainly need to do a lot more, to prevent family violence and to care more effectively for the victims who are forced to suffer in so many ways.

What is especially alarming is the phenomenon coming to be known as ''fatherlessness''. World leaders, including President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron, have begun to give attention to this, but not so much to the underlying institutional pressures.