University and Professional Development Centre in Bury St Edmunds hosts conference on men’s mental health on International Men’s Day

A university based in Bury St Edmunds has championed International Men’s Day by hosting an all-day conference on men’s mental health.

The event at the University and Professional Development Centre on Tuesday coincided with International Men’s Day, which is a global awareness campaign aimed at discussing issues facing men.

A host of guest speakers including current lecturers, former students and guest experts discussed a range of topics under the headline ‘Big Boys Don’t Cry’.

Reverend Dr Lesley Crawley, a counselling lecturer at University Studies at West Suffolk College, was part of the event and said: “We think it is super important to talk about mental health and in this case the focus was men’s mental health.

“Male suicide is very high and that is of great concern. There are also concerns about males being victims of domestic abuse and we had talks on what it means to be a man in 2024 in comparison with previous generations.

“People take the mickey out of International Men’s Day as a campaign – but I’m personally a mother of three boys – and I am disturbed by the way people talk about men.

“It can be divisive and I don’t want my boys growing up in a world where they are endlessly put down because of their gender. So I think this day and these events are important.”

Lesley added: “We also had talks from former students on our counselling programme so that is always nice to see.”

One of those former students was Jody Lee. Jody, 44, from Mildenhall, studied on a counselling degree course at University Studies at West Suffolk College – gaining first class honours earlier this year.

Jody, who now works with Status Creative CIC, said: “I work for a company whose mission is to improve lives through creativity.

“I run poetry workshops and I’m currently working with homeless guys in Lowestoft and I talked about that.”

On the perception of the campaign by others, Jody added: “When I said I was doing something for International Men’s Day, one of my colleagues joked, isn’t every day International Men’s Day and you can’t argue with that.

“But, it’s important to talk about these issues as a mental health crisis is happening, particularly with men, so it’s important to raise awareness, talk about it and relieve some of that stigma.”

University Studies at West Suffolk College is based at the University and Professional Development Centre and comes under Eastern Education Group.