Letter to Chief Medical Officer Requesting the 2015 Annual Report Focusses on Men’s Health

Professor Dame Sally C Davies

Chief Medical Officer

Department of Health

79 Whitehall

Richmond House

London SW1A 2NS

27 March 2016

Dear Professor Dame Sally C Davies

Annual Report – “Health of the 49%: Men”

We welcome your 2014 Annual Report published in December 2015 entitled “Health of the 51%: Women” and its gendered approach to health.

We fully support the contents of the letter of 6 January 2016 issued by the Chief Executive of the Men’s Health Forum. We agree with the range of issues raised by the Men’s Health Forum within their letter.

We are writing to express our disappointment that you were unable to agree to Mr Tod’s reasonable proposal to take a similar approach in your 2015 Annual Report to raise awareness about health issues that particularly or predominantly affect men. We were also disappointed that you were unable to give any clear commitment, including naming a particular year, to producing any such Annual Report in the future.

A “Health of the 49%: Men” report would have the merits both of demonstrating consistency in your approach as well as directing professional focus to the many health issues that affect not only men but their families and wider community.

We are therefore urging you to reconsider your decision and focus your 2015 Annual Report on men’s health.

If you are unwilling to reconsider your decision, it would be instructive if you could provide a full explanation and outline in more detail why you have decided not to continue with the precedent to a gendered approach in health you so admirably started in your 2014 Annual Report.

We have copied the Chief Executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission into this correspondence.

Yours sincerely

Glen Poole, UK Coordinator of International Men’s Day Keith Best, Chief Executive, SurvivorsUK Jane Powell, CEO, CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably Bob Balfour, Founder/Director, Survivors West Yorkshire Heather Blake, Director of Support and Influencing, Prostate Cancer UK Sam Thomas, Founder and Director, Men Get Eating Disorders Too Shane Ryan, CEO, Working With Men Ian McKay BA, Chairman, MBEEDS (Scotland) Paul Hopkins, Director, Mengage Jack Broadley, Chief Executive, BaggyTrousersUK Richard Duncker, Founder, Men Do Complain Martin Seager, Consultant Clinical Psychologist Duncan Craig, CEO, Survivors Manchester Mark Brooks, Chair, The ManKind Initiative Karen Woodall, Lead Therapist, Family Separation Clinic London Ian Findlay, FNF Trustee Nick Smithers, National Development Officer, Abused Men in Scotland Justin Gaffney RN, CEO/Director, MSH Health & Wellbeing CIC Ian Maxwell, National Development Manager, Families Need Fathers Scotland Peter Morris, Chairman, Mens Aid Northern Ireland Paul Apreda, National Manager, FNF Both Parents Matter Cymru John Mays, Chairman, Parity David Eggins, Manager, Temper DV Dr Nicola Graham-Kevan, Reader in the Psychology of Aggression, UCLAN Dr Elizabeth A. Bates, Senior Lecturer in Applied Psychology, University of Cumbria Dr John Barry, Gender Equity Network Dr Mike Hartill, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Sport, Edge Hill University Dr Jessica McCarrick, Chartered Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Counselling Psychology, Teesside University Dr Ben Hine, Lecturer in Psychology, University of West London Brian Dempsey, Lecturer, School of Law, University of Dundee Dr Sarah Hawkes, Reader in Global Health, University College London Dr Niall McCrae, Lecturer in Mental Health, King’s College London Gijsbert Stoet, Reader in Psychology, University of Glasgow Belinda Brown, Research Fellow, The Young Foundation Dan Bell, Features Editor, insideMan magazine Martin Daubney, Journalist, broadcaster and committee member, Being A Man Festival Ally Fogg, Writer and Journalist Neil Lyndon, Writer and Journalist Andrew Baker, RMN Ian McNicholl, Ambassador, The ManKind Initiative John Jeffrey, Coach, Entrepreneur and Ordained Buddhist

CC: Rebecca Hilsenrath, CEO, Equalities and Human Rights Commission