'Crisis of spirit' hits health of NZ men

New Zealand men are dying because of "a crisis of the spirit" and despair at what life has to offer, a summit has heard.

A former director of Lifeline, Bruce Mackie, says more men than women are dying in the workplace, on the roads and in water, and from cancer, heart disease and suicide, because they have learned not to value themselves.

He told the first national "men's issues summit" in the Waitakere City Council chambers yesterday that boys grow up with no male role models of work/life balance and with media portrayals of men as "an irresponsible herd of buffoons".

"The more we examine the state of men's health, the more we expose problems of hopelessness, helplessness, meaninglessness and despair. This is a crisis of the spirit," he said.

In Britain, children aged 9 and 10 were taught that the reason for war was the violent nature of men, Mr Mackie said. "The boys sat crumpled, apologising for their existence."

"The denigration of men begins early in the lives of boys," he said.

"When they hear their fathers abused and maligned, or acting that way, when they undertake schooling without the presence of men, when they view men caricatured, when they read the cynicism and distortions about men - then the spirit of our boys is being corrosively and dangerously abused."

A number of male speakers, led by the embattled advocate for the "Kiwi bloke" John Tamihere, called for men's problems in health, education and the justice system to be given the same kind of attention that was given to women's issues.

"We must be quite fearless in the way we conduct our conversation, in the way we conduct our debate, in the light of some horrendous trends that are occurring, particularly with our young men," Mr Tamihere said.

The Labour MP urged men to write novels, short stories and songs about male lifestyles, become teachers and doctors, get regular health checks and stop being violent.

Victoria University researcher Paul Callister said men, not women, were bearing more of the "double burden" of paid work and unpaid childcare for children under 5.

In two-parent households with preschoolers, men worked 5.8 paid hours and 3.2 unpaid hours, a total of 9 hours daily on average throughout the week.

Women worked seven hours unpaid but only 1.7 hours in paid work, for a total of only 8.7 hours a day.

"Is fathers' work undervalued? The answer has to be yes in terms of a lack of public recognition of their 'double burden'," Dr Callister said.

"Fathers are now expected to be dedicated fulltime workers but also good fathers. To fulfil both roles requires long hours of work."

Mr Mackie, who is now director of the new Brain Training Institute Trust, said overseas studies found men were surprisingly willing to talk about physical ailments, but raised mental health problems much less often than women.

Psychotherapies based on verbal abilities and talking about emotional problems often did not work as well for men. In contrast, brain therapies such as electric feedback systems had cut reoffending rates in a study of Canadian prisoners from 70 per cent to about 15 per cent.

"With our inclination to build more prisons and establish anger management and campaigns for men, it is surely time for a rethink."