Movember has launched a new campaign to empower men to talk about mental health.
The launch of the new campaign coincides with World Suicide Prevention Day on Sept. 10.
“We realize that men aren’t talking as much as they need to be about their mental health,” Movember Regina Chair, Adam Kletchko, told CTV Morning Live. “We want them to be a man of more words.”
The “Man of More Words” campaign encourages men to be open about their mental health with the people in their lives.
Kyle Moffatt says this is important because his dad was someone who went to lengths to keep his struggles with mental health from the people around him.
“He thought that if his coworkers and the people around him knew what he was dealing with, it would impact him career-wise and emotionally tear him apart,” Moffat said.
His father, Wade, committed suicide four years ago.
“I think a lot of men feel like they need to be in full control of what happens in their lives and what happens in their heads,” Moffatt said. “You want to solve it on your own, you want to figure out the answer, you want to just deal with it.”
He said his dad didn’t want people to think he was weak, or that he had lost control. Kyle said that if his dad had felt empowered to open up to the people in his life, that the situation may not have escalated to suicide.
“We’ve hit this point in our world where we talk about mental illness and we encourage others to get help,” he said. “But when it’s us, we’re still not doing it ourselves.”
