KEY POINTS:
Looking out for the boys and turning around disturbing health statistics is what a new men's pilot programme aims to do in Waitakere City.
"Make a Stand" will bring nurses into workplaces for free health screening, including a cardiovascular assessment.
If immediate problems of any kind are found, workers will be referred to their GP for treatment. If they don't have a GP, nurses will organise one as well.
If the men are found to be at high risk of developing heart disease, lead agency Waiora Healthcare Trust will continue to work with them, including getting them on to weight loss programmes.
It also plans to work on changing lifestyle habits - diet and exercise - which the World Health Organisation say is associated with early male deaths.
The pilot was launched at Huhtamaki Packaging, whose 440- strong workforce includes high proportions of Maori, Pacific Island and migrant workers - groups that feature prominently at the depressing end of health statistics and live about a decade less than European women.
But advocates said Pakeha men could also access the services because health outcomes were linked to socio-economic status.
Waiora executive officer Simon Royal said men were more likely to be "staunch or stoic" about visiting the doctors, but equitable access for men - who saw doctors less than women - had long been an issue because of working hours.
He praised Huhtamaki as "socially responsible" for backing the six-month project, which is expected to cost around $200,000, and said other primary health organisations were interested in rolling it out.
John Tamahere, chief executive of Te Whanau o Waipareira Trust, said such solutions weren't about men turning into "sookie babies. It's about looking after your mates, it's not just about violence and alcohol. Men drive over the top of symptoms that others see as the indicators of problems."
Rugby league great Tawera Nikau, whose motivational company Team One is also part of the programme, said it was time men - not Maori women - took responsibility for their health.
He said that working last week at the tangi of a cousin who had died at 52 of a heart attack rammed that home.
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union worked on the initiative with the PHO and manufacturer. Secretary Andrew Little said health focus in the workplace had once been solely about fighting for payments related to workplace injury. This project showed how far thinking had come.
