A thematic analysis of men's help-seeking on an Australian health helpline

Knowledge and practices about health among Quilombola men: contributions to health care

OBJECTIVE

to analyze health knowledge and practices among Quilombola men.

METHODS

a qualitative, descriptive study, carried out with 40 men from two Quilombola communities in Santa Izabel do Pará, state of Pará, Brazil. Individual interviews were carried out using a semi-structured script. Text corpus was subjected to analysis with Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires 0.6, alpha 3, through Descending Hierarchical Classification.

RESULTS

among participants, eight (20.00%) were aged 55 to 59 years. 382 text segments were identified, with 299 (78.27%) being used, generating five lexical classes, which made up two subcorpora. The classes were organized into four thematic axes, covering knowledge about health and practices to prevent and solve health problems.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

men highlighted popular/traditional wisdom permeated by biomedical knowledge, translating their understanding of how to act to remain or become healthy.

"I Called When I Was at My Lowest": Australian Men's Experiences of Crisis Helplines

Background: Helplines are an accessible form of support for people struggling with difficulties in their lives and are key services in suicide prevention and intervention. Men’s experiences of telephone helplines are not well understood, despite high male suicide rates. Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey with N = 684 Australian men (aged 17–83 years, M = 50.13) using open- and closed-ended questions about their experiences of helplines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive statistics were analysed to investigate differences between men using and not using helplines. Qualitative responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Within the sample, 100 men (14.6%) had used a helpline service. Men using helplines were more likely to be unemployed and in younger age brackets than those not using helplines. They were also more likely to report experiencing stressors related to COVID-19, including financial stress and job loss, perceived impact on mental health and relationship breakdown. Qualitative analysis indicated varied experiences of helplines, with men shedding light on how their interaction with a counsellor, the structure of services and their expectations of the service impacted their experience. Conclusions: Further in-depth qualitative enquiry in this space is required, with the objective of understanding how helpline services may seek to better engage with male callers.