MAN Model: Health Promotion

Abstract

Despite the efforts of the health care industry to raise men's awareness and participation in attending to their own health needs, men continue to be very poor consumers of health care services (Gibson & Denner, 2000). The MAN model is a model of disease prevention and health promotion that seeks to improve and create pathways for men and adolescents to better access the Health Care System (Gibson & Denner, 2000). If men at present do not come to the health services, then men's health programs may need to journey to where men are gathered. The MAN Model was developed to address specifically this problem of reaching men and getting them to discuss their health concerns in a culturally relevant way. Apart from social and sporting venues, the workplace also represents another significant culturally relevant site for men's health discussions. Men's health in the workplace is subject to the same social, economic, cultural and environmental factors as health in the community (Noblet & Murphy, 1995). The MAN Model has developed a pathway for the education and empowerment of males to deal with their health needs preventively rather than reactively both in the community and the workplace.