Men’s Issues Summit to focus on embattled Kiwi male

From academic to activist and from psychosocial to social service, the first New Zealand Men’s Issues Summit will look at issues facing Kiwi males from a variety of perspectives.

The intention of the one-day event is to strategise ways to improve male well-being and relationships, says summit co-ordinator and Senior Lecturer in AUT’s Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences Warwick Pudney.

“Men are in trouble. We have problems with our boys failing in schools, our declining health, our suicide rate is three times that of women, our workplace deaths are 95 per cent male, our prisons 90 per cent male.

“The summit is a call to social services, policy writers, planners, politicians and men and women to consider the male condition and advocate for change.”

The Summit will feature presentations by MP and proud Kiwi bloke John Tamihere and Bruce Mackie, counsellor and former director of Lifeline Auckland and Lifeline NZ and will be held this Friday May 6th at Waitakere City Council Chambers.

Warwick Pudney says it is time for men to take some action in a concerted way to ensure there are services and interventions that are made for men’s problems and to encourage men to take responsibility for themselves as a gender.

“Forty years ago we either expected women to look after men or we went into denial that there was a problem. I’m not sure that we have shifted much and it’s now time to move.”

Warwick Pudney says many social services do not identify men’s needs nor do they try to meet them in a male appropriate manner. “Even if services exist they end up becoming feminised. We need to remember that men are part of families and society – what helps men benefits everyone. “

The one-day conference will cover issues of men’s health, fathers and fatherlessness, boys in schools, men’s violence, men and research, men and work, advocacy, the Family Court, men in community and prisons, policy and politics, and men’s social services.