Men’s Health Forum in Ireland

Minutes of meeting held at institute of Public Health, Dublin on 30 September 2003.

Present: Noel (chair), Owen (Minutes), Colin, Fergal, Alan and Mary Sheehan (Tallaght Partnership)

Apologies: Shay Franklin, Gerrard Rocks

In attendance: Kieran Wilson (Yamanouchi)

Update on a current piece of work:

Alan

  • Stand at ploughing championships with Irish Cancer Society.
  • Met with Department of Health in London re: a pilot programme on prostate cancer

Owen

  • Questionnaire disseminated on work in Men’s Health. 28 responses to date.
  • Department of Health & Children meeting on Men’s Health policy, 14 October.

Noel

  • 580 responses to questionnaire. 52% response rate. Analysis about to commence.

Mary

  • Paper presentation on Determinants of Men’s Health in an urban disadvantaged area at forthcoming Healthy Cities Conference in Belfast.

Fergal

  • Travellers health consultation process underway.

Colin

  • Trade union supported seminar on Men’s Health taking place on 2 December in Belfast. If you want an invitation contact Colin.

Minutes from 19 August 2003 accepted.

Matters Arising:

Report

Alan has received commitment from Yamanouchi for additional support to disseminate the report. Also in the future, Yamanouchi will be willing to look at support for specific projects related to prostate cancer.

Memorandum and Articles

Dennis Carroll not in a position to become a trustee. Barry McGale and Gerrard Rocks have agreed.

To support the work of the MHFI it was agreed that sub-groups could be established to which particular people could be co-opted without them becoming trustees.

Membership

Colin still requested names for database to be forwarded. It was agreed to compile a database which would consist of key opinion leaders who could be supportive of the MHFI.

Agenda:

  1. Report
  2. Launch
  3. Key opinion leaders
  4. Post launch business plan
  5. Working with Department of Health
  6. Committee participation
  1. Report

All agreed the logo is brilliant. Thanks to Barry for all the work on this.

Options for the front cover discussed and one image selected.

Chapters will be colour coded.

Title agreed as “Men’s Health in Ireland” with sub-heading “A report from the Men’s Health Forum in Ireland”.

Committee to be circulated with a final chance to proof read when type-setting has occurred. Kieran to circulate.

  1. Launch

President not available on 12 November.

Agreed to push for a date in December when she might be available.

Noel is to invite both Ministers for Health and Gay Byrne for a date in early December.

All agreed that launch should take place this year.

Once a date is secured, a venue will be obtained by Owen.

Fergal’s press release agreed in principle but to be amended with a headline statement in relation to each bullet point.

Fergal to amend.

Invite list and circulation for press release to be drawn up for next meeting. (who is going to do this?)

  1. Key opinion leaders

A quick brain-storm yielded the following list which should be added to when committee members have time to think about suitable people.

Heart Health-Dr Maurice Neligan

Diabetes -Dick Firth (Mater)

General Practice-Tom O’Dowd (Trinity)

Public Health-Declan Bedford (NEHB)

Psychiatry-Anthony Clare (St Pat’s)

Pat McKeown (St Pat’s)

Urology-Ted McDermott (Tallaght)

Thomas Lynch (St James’s)

Injuries-Fenlon (Tallaght)

?-Ronan Tynan

It was agreed that these are the type of people who could be supportive of the work of MHFI and asked to contribute by for example, writing a piece on Men’s Health from their perspective. People should think about who else could be added to this list, especially from a non-medical perspective.

  1. Post launch

Essential to secure core funding which would support an executive worker, office and administrative expenses and facilitate pursuit of a workplan.

Broad areas for a workplan were discussed which included:

Determinants of Health

Alcohol

Mental Health

Disadvantaged and Marginalized Groups

Linking with existing projects e.g. IPH work

Focus on rural/urban men

It is important to decide what the priorities should be and how we can set targets to achieve these priorities. Alan is to take responsibility for drawing up a job spec. with support from Barry who will look at the broad areas that might be included in the workplan.

Target setting might include things such as extra men attending GP’s; groups reached and talked to; leaflets distributed.

A three year time frame was talked about with reference to leaflets; billboard campaigns; demonstration projects introduced on a phased basis.

Central to this is the issue of funding and it was agreed that we need to explore this at the next meeting but that a figure of €200,000 over three years is what is required. This led into discussion on item 5.

  1. Working with Department of Health

Owen and Noel are attending a meeting on 14 October in relation to developing a Men’s Health policy with the Department of Health & Children. Issues that might be raised with this group are facilitating access; research; demonstration projects and awareness raising. Core funding might be available in which the Department could support the MHFI in carrying out work which would help develop a policy on Men’s Health.

  1. Committee representation

It was agreed that Mary could continue to participate in this committee as a co-opted member. When the company is formed, membership of what is essentially the board will consist of those who are trustees/directors. Mary to review Memorandum and Articles and see if she wishes to become a trustee.

At the moment people who are on this committee are there in an individual capacity and not representing their organisations.

Date of next meeting:

NB This is changed from 21 October to 10 November 2003 at 10.30am, Franklin House, Belfast.