Police Scotland<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n\n \u201cAs men, we can think we\u2019re the problem and want to die. But really, we want the pain to die.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Fraser said the night before, someone came in and said they wanted to take their own life.\n<\/p>\n
\n They were taken in and offered support right away, no appointments needed, no waiting time, no waiting list to join.\n<\/p>\n
\n The charity also has two teams that are out in the community offering help when people are in crisis.\n<\/p>\n
\n A street team goes out at weekends, actively looking for people who might need immediate help.\n<\/p>\n
\n They also have a search team who are called out if someone is reported missing.\n<\/p>\n
\n They know where to look and have e-bikes to help get to locations that vehicles can\u2019t reach easily.\n<\/p>\n
\n There have been occasions where they have reached the person\u00a0just in time.\n<\/p>\n
\n The day-to-day services are where the work is done, where people get the help and support to allow them to turn their lives around.\n<\/p>\n
\n Fraser said: \u201cI got help from AA. Now, helping people helps me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The numbers coming through show the scale of the issue.\n<\/p>\n
\n They had 50 new men in April, 39 in May, and another 39 in June and 587 people attended classes in one month alone.\n<\/p>\n
\n Many men who get in touch are having suicidal thoughts.\n<\/p>\n
\n Fraser produced the stats. There were 39 in April, 32 in May, 37 in June and 60 in July.\n<\/p>\n
\n He\u00a0said they don\u2019t yet know why there was such an increase in July.\n<\/p>\n
\n The charity is geared up to help the growing number of men who find themselves feeling alone and thinking they have\u00a0nowhere to turn.\n<\/p>\n
\n It now has eight\u00a0staff and dozens of volunteers.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of the volunteers, Malcolm Briggs, showed the Glasgow Times around the premises and explained the range of services and facilities.\n<\/p>\n
\n Malcolm said he came in suicidal and depressed, needing\u00a0help two years ago and is now a volunteer.\n<\/p>\n
\n Malcolm explained the principles of Men Matter: \u201cEmpathy, confidentiality, respect and open-mindedness\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n He now leads sessions on “mindfulness, meditations and positive thinking”, and has completed courses on\u00a0Suicide First Aid, peer to peer, mental health first aid and awareness of mental health training.\n<\/p>\n
\n The centre has counselling rooms for confidential one-to-one chats, which is where most people would be taken\u00a0first.\n<\/p>\n
\n There is also a music room, a small gym, and a social area, which is busy with a few men chatting. There is a pool table, which is not being used when we visited but Malcolm said it is popular.\n<\/p>\n
\n The charity has evolved in the six years to offer professional, structured programmes of support.\n<\/p>\n
\n People come from all over the country to Men Matter and Fraser wants to open hubs in other places.\n<\/p>\n
\n A range of services is available seven days a week at Men Matter from 10.30am to 8pm, with activity days at weekends.\n<\/p>\n
\n Outside of those hours, the team is available to support someone in crisis at any time.\n<\/p>\n
\n During the day, there are talking workshops that cover issues such as trauma, incorporating Cognitive Behavioural Therapy sessions and mindset and breathwork sessions.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sessions on addiction and violence are also offered.\n<\/p>\n
\n Men Matter can be contacted\u00a0 at the hub \u00a0at 20 Drumchapel Rd, Glasgow G15 6QE\n<\/p>\n
\n Or on 0141 944 7900\n<\/p>\n
\n contact@menmatterscotland.org\n<\/p>\n
\n www.menmatterscotland.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Men, who had come to the charity for help when they most needed it, who\u00a0now give their time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-409837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115173131804614251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}