Health of Men
Healthy Living Initiative

What is the Health of Men (HOM) Healthy Living Initiative?

The present day HOM project is a 5 year Big Lottery Fund initiative which addresses the neglected area of men’s health and the inequalities which result from this historic lack of attention across the Bradford and Airedale district. The project is delivering health services to suit boys and men’s needs within the community and in environments which are non threatening and comfortable to men and outside of traditional health settings, i.e. Pubs, barbershops, retail outlets, betting shops, sporting clubs and other various male oriented venues. The project is at the forefront of men’s health work and in early 2003 was the largest men’s health initiative in the country.

The project is a health professional led service which aims to provide a cross district men’s health service. The HoM project combines the outstanding work of a number of men’s health teams and partnerships from within the district. These teams come from the key match funding partners of the Health of Men project.

The Health of Men key match funding partners are:

>The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
>The four Primary care trusts serving the area of benefit, i.e.
-Bradford City PCT
-North Bradford PCT
-Bradford South and West PCT
-Airedale PCT
>Education Bradford
>Health Development Service
>Worksafe
>Sangat Community Association
>Leeds Metropolitan University

As we have mentioned the purpose of the HOM project is to address men’s health inequalities across the Bradford Metropolitan District. This is being and has been achieved by providing and co-ordinating services which:

a. Promote good health within boys and men of the Bradford Metropolitan District
b. Combat and prevent male ill health
c. Are accessible and attractive to boys and men of all ages

Activities within the project have been designed with the following objectives in mind:

i. To raise awareness of health issues among boys and men by providing accessible services and information to the local male population;
ii. To deliver services and information to boys and men through innovative practices, removed from traditional health settings
iii. To encourage and facilitate health-enhancing activities and to improve health outcomes in the male population;
iv. To generate and maintain a two-way flow of communication between providers and users to ensure the continuing relevance and effectiveness of delivery

How did we get to the present day HOM; A brief summary on the history

HOM was first developed in 1997 by a group of like minded health professionals who recognised that the male population has particular health needs which are not being met by the current health provision. Initially HOM was intended simply to provide a forum for debate and to share good practise; but the HOM group rapidly built links with other agencies, groups and individuals and has since developed the objective of providing a district wide men’s health service to redress the inequalities that exist within men’s health.

The purpose of the present day HOM initiative is to provide just such a service, drawing together experience and best practise from the various projects and pilots, evaluating, expanding and developing these further to meet the ever changing needs of men’s health and rolling the facility out across the whole of the Bradford and Airedale District.

What is the Health of Men Network?

The health of men network is an ever-growing body of individuals, groups, charities, businesses, voluntary organisations, users and many more key contacts within the community that have an interest in improving men’s health in the Bradford district and we all work together, and in association with the HOM partners to improve men’s health in the community. The Network meets about 6 times a year and the meetings are used as a forum for debate, review, networking, interagency working and best practise guide for Men’s health issues in the Bradford and Airedale district. This is a massive united network that pulls in a vast array of different services from Surestart to smoking cessation to user representation (to make sure we are delivering what the men are needing!) the network virtually covers all areas of the Bradford community.

The Health of Men Healthy Living initiative 2003 annual report is now available to view, please click on the following link to see the amazing progress we made in 2003.

Download HOM Report 2003 - (523kb)