A walking and talking club is tackling men’s mental health – one step at a time.
The Proper Blokes Club, founded by Scott Oughton-Johnson, organises meet-ups across London where men can walk and talk.
In the UK, men are three times more likely to die by suicide than women and are twice as likely to die from alcohol abuse – the club believes that men need a safe environment to unload their emotional baggage without judgement.
Scott said: “It’s okay to be a man that talks about emotions.”
The Proper Blokes Club organises 19 weekly walks, all over London, and boasts more than 500 members.
Scott said that talking about their problems, whether big or small, helped his members to get vulnerable and face their fears.
Men can come to the group to work through life’s stresses, such as divorce, grief, or the new anxieties of fatherhood.
He said that the group gives the guys a new-found confidence to tackle these issues and challenge the situations that are making them feel this way.
Scott said: “It’s so easy to say ‘I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this’ when you’re in a hole, but if you’re if you’re surrounded by a good, supportive network a all of a sudden you can.”
Scott wants men to unload their emotional baggage and get talking – before they reach breakdown point.
He said: “You wish it wasn’t as busy, because I guess we don’t want these problems, but I’m glad we’ve created this space for the guys to come down now.
“And we’re only scratching the surface.”
He explained that men will often follow their Facebook and like posts for up to a year before engaging in the club.
Scott believes that this is because it is so deep-rooted in men to avoid opening up.
He said: “We have to play the long game.”
Hossen, a sports therapist, joined the Proper Blokes Club in April 2024, and had his own Bromley branch of the group by November.
He joined the group after his relationship with his partner broke down.
He said: “It’s good because you’re speaking to other people that are really in the same boat as you.
“I wanted to hear from other men’s perspectives, without having any judgement whatsoever.”
He said that the group offered him the mental health support that he couldn’t get anywhere else.
Hossen has suffered with depression in the past and struggled to get professional support through the NHS.
He said: “It’s not just doom and gloom. It’s actually quite a laugh.”
He explained that he feels like men are pressured to be extroverted by society, making it difficult for those naturally introverted.
Hossen said that in sport, men are taught not to show weakness physically or mentally and it’s an environment of bravado that carries on into daily life – making it difficult to be vulnerable.
He said: “I think with men, it’s particularly hard because it’s showing that vulnerability, and it’s sometimes you have to kind of to find that inner strength or outlet to overcome it.”
Hossen is determined to expand his branch of the group.
Currently the Bromley branch has five or six members a week.
He noted that, in comparison, the local women’s walking group boasts more than 20 members.
He said: “I’ve kind of gone competitive in a way, because I really don’t want this to dwindle down to really low numbers.
“So I’m determined to get more friendships, more bonds, more commitment within the current group, and getting new faces in.”
Professor Damien Ridge is a Professor of Health Studies, and a practicing psychotherapist, at the University of Westminster.
He said that women may have a higher reported levels of depression and anxiety, but mental health presents itself differently in men.
Men suffer from, what Professor Ridge called, ‘hidden mental health problems’.
They are more likely to be homeless, in prison, missing, or suffer from alcohol addiction.
He said: “Men may be expressing their mental health issues in more externalising ways, that we may be missing.”
Professor Ridge believes that it is difficult for men to express their inner-feelings and mental health issues due to societal expectations.
He said: “It’s the regime men are born into, boys learn early on that it’s a competitive system, and that there’s a pecking order.
“Vulnerability doesn’t suit that system very well, so men tend to hide their vulnerability.”
Professor Ridge added that you cannot just make men open up, either, due to these societal pressures.
He conducted research with police and firefighters in their workplaces.
He found that despite various campaigns to get these professions to ‘open up’ about their feelings, the supportive structure and culture just wasn’t there.
If the job itself doesn’t support vulnerability, then there must be support put in place that creates an environment to encourage it.
He said: “The key thing is that men need to feel safe in order to open up.
“Doing these sorts of activities allows them to make connections and to work out for themselves if it’s safe to say something.”
Professor Ridge believes that things are changing, and societal standards are shifting towards men being more vulnerable – thanks to organisations like the Proper Blokes Club.
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