Where we are, where we are going...
Date: Monday 29 Jan 2018
Brothers in Arms was set up 6 months ago as a response to the high level of male suicide in the UK (75% of all suicides in the UK are male and it's the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45) in 2016 suicide rates in Scotland went up by 6% compared to England and Wales where they went down, and we are Scotland's first male mental health awareness charity dedicated to reducing male suicide.
We decided that to tackle what was a big problem through all parts of Scotland in the shortest time meant that we would have to create a platform that reflects the needs of the 21st Century man trying to make sense of the modern world, and have a digital strategy suitable to support that.
To that end, we have used the first 6 months in creating 'brand awareness' of BIA through events and the use of social media, here is a resume of the first half of that: https://www.brothersinarmsscotland.co.uk/news/2018/january/08/the-brothers-2017-resumepart-one/
And now we are about to impart the next stage, the #MentalWealthDigitalToolBox, digital services in the form of mobile apps focused on and designed to be used by men of all ages to provide support in dealing with their own mental health needs and to start them on a journey of recognising and coping as opposed to using other risky coping mechanism's such as alcohol,drugs or gambling which inevitably can end with them taking their own lives.
We have invested in providing the #brotherfeelstressfree-create your own wellbeing, a therapeutic multi-platform app with clinically proven content to help you train your mind, with games, guides, relaxation sessions, internal/external support and much more and #brotherstayalive-create your own safe space, a suicide prevention app that offers help and support both to people with thoughts of suicide and to people concerned about someone else. Most of the content is viewable offline, and parts of the app can be customised by the user to suit their personal needs.
Most importantly of all, they will be free to download and use in Scotland as we believe that there must be no barrier to men seeking help.
The #brotherfeelstressfree app is suitable to be downloaded from the age of 13 as we recognise that young Scottish males are facing new pressures from social media and peer pressure and are partnering up with https://www.beingmankind.org/ through their outreach programme.
As you can see there has been a lot done in a short space of time, but there is more in the pipeline ( a short film is currently being produced ),
we are having our first annual charity fundraising night on the 3rd of Feb, already sold out! and have now official charity status.
We are looking forward to doing an event at the Scottish Parliament for a week from Monday 30th of April, where we will be able to raise awareness around men and mental health and other Brothers in Arms Projects.
ONWARDS!...