News and Events
June is Men's Health Month!
Help us celebrate by participating in our Men's Health Month activities including Men's Health Month Bingo and the #ShowUsYourBlue campaign!
What is Men’s Health Month Bingo?
Join the Center for Research on Men’s Health at Vanderbilt University in raising awareness around men's health by participating in our Men's Health Month 2020 Bingo. We will be posting one square every weekday during the month of June on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts to encourage men to educate themselves on topics like healthy eating, physical activity, sleep, chronic illness management, and cancer risks. The Bingo card, instructions, and resources can be found here.
How do you Participate?
We encourage you, your families, and friends to post to our social media account using #MHM2020Bingo to let us know how you are accomplishing the bingo tasks. Don't have social media? You can print the bingo sheet, instructions and resources (see above) and complete the tasks in whatever order works for you. We will be posting each square on social media in numerical order, so feel free to follow along and participate each day.
#ShowUsYourBlue
The Men's Health Network sponsors a national 'Wear BLUE Day' for Men's Health month every Friday before Father's Day. This year it is Friday, June 19th. To take part in the #ShowUsYourBlue campaign, post a photo of you wearing blue and use the hashtag: #ShowUsYourBlue on social media to show your support for Men's Health Month!
CRMH Updates
Upstream Suicide Prevention Video Series
Dr. Derek Griffith, along with sociologist Chris Smith and clinical psychologist Sarah Wilson, discuss "Demographic Considerations" in Video #3 of this series available at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website.
Suicide has been recognized in recent years as a persistent and disturbingly prevalent problem among military service members and veterans. There have been numerous efforts to address this problem – particularly in the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) – which, laudably, have often focused on improving intervention capacities in crisis situations. Examples include advertising suicide prevention hotlines, reducing access to lethal means, identifying persons in the highest risk categories, and training personnel in how to ask about and assess for suicide risk. From a public health standpoint, these suicide prevention efforts represent what might be understood as secondary or tertiary prevention efforts. The objective of this video series is to explore the possibility of preventing suicide further upstream, moving closer toward primary prevention.
Most of the experts featured in this series are not suicide prevention experts. That is by design. Despite significant efforts across DoD, VA, and other national systems, suicide rates continue to rise. This is true not just for military veterans but for the entire U.S. population. Innovative thinking is needed. We know enough about suicide to know that its causes are not simple. Military veterans who die by suicide are not all reacting to combat experiences – it is debatable even whether military service is a risk factor, protective factor, both, or neither. We know that veterans are affected by many of the same factors that are relevant for the rest of society: overall health, access to care, stigma, personal histories, belief systems, sociodemographic trends, and so on. And we know that distinguishing characteristics of the military – such as skewed demographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, SES) and cultural norms (e.g., masculine ethos, familiarity with firearms) – have particular relevance for suicide risk in this population. These are some of the factors that receive attention in this video series.
Our hope with this video series is that in shifting our perspective on suicide – viewing it from the side so to speak – we will open new avenues for prevention efforts. An immediate audience for the video series is chaplains, especially those working in DoD and VA. A number of prior suicide prevention trainings have targeted chaplains, and surveys of military chaplains indicate that they feel relatively well equipped to participate in the basics of crisis intervention efforts. However, chaplains have simultaneously indicated not feeling adequately equipped to deal with many of the psychosocial upstream risk factors for suicidality. Further, military chaplains are often in a position to advise commanding officers on the topic of suicide. Knowledge of secondary/tertiary prevention resources is critical in such circumstances. We hope to supplement this knowledge with an appreciation for a broader range of considerations that may prove to be relevant in preventing suicide further upstream.
Men's Health Equity
The Men's Health Equity handbook edited by Dr. Derek Griffith, Dr. Marino Bruce, and Dr. Roland Thorpe Jr. is now available. It discusses the field of men's health equity by exploring how and why health inequities exist among men. The handbook presents a systematic review of the root causes of patterns of illness and disease, the specific needs of groups of men, and what can be done to improve men's health and well-being.
Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional
Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional edited by Dr. Derek M. Griffith, Dr. Marino Bruce, Dr. Chandra L. Ford, and Dr. Keon L. Gilbert is now available. Published by APHA Press, this new book brings health equity to the forefront of the national dialogue on racism and acts as a driver for change. Exploring racism's influence on U.S. institutions and policy and highlighting its manifestations in personal interactions, this publication delves into structural and interpersonal forms of racism, offering health workers insights into the communities in which they work.
Community Conversation Follow-Up to Terry Crews Event
Dr. Derek Griffith, along with William H. Robinson and Rory Dicker, led a discussion on themes brought up during the September 9, 2019 Chancellor’s Lecture Series event featuring Terry Crews whose presentation focused on “Reframing Masculinity and Gender Equality.”
Engendering Trust: Efforts to Measure and Increase Trust among African American Men
Dr. Derek Griffith and Dr. Consuelo Wilkins are serving as the Principal Investigators on a 2018 awarded grant under the Robert Wood Johnson "Building Trust and Mutual Respect to Improve Health Care" program, managed by AcademyHealth.
Grant to develop method of measuring medical trust in African American men
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a two-year, $250,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop a new way to measure trust in African American men as it relates to health care. Dr. Derek Griffith, Director of the CRMH, is co-investigator on this grant.
Release of the latest Report of the APA Working Group on Health Disparities in Boys and Men
