On an Akron billboard at Manchester and West Wilbeth roads, therapist Dr. Rich Mahogany holds a subtle smile from a studded leather chair.
“Men have feelings too,” the ad reads. “Not just the hippies.”
Dubbed Man Therapy, the humorous national radio and billboard ad campaign is geared toward encouraging mental health therapy for men, viewed by suicide prevention experts as a notoriously hard-to-reach demographic.
Expect to see more such billboards in Summit County and to hear radio spots about the effort. Local experts have joined the national campaign because Summit County men ages 30 to 69 make up more than half of those who die by suicide each year. A similar trend appears across many communities nationwide.
“Though there’s been an improvement, there’s still a big stigma attached to mental illness versus physical illness, and there’s probably a bigger stigma for that male group,” said Dr. Doug Smith, chief clinical officer with the Summit County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board. “If you’re not willing to admit, not even to yourself, that the stigma is that strong, going to get help is a big leap with that barrier of stigma in the way.”
Barb Medlock, co-facilitator for the Summit County Suicide Prevention Coalition, agreed. She said officials worldwide have struggled to reach adult men and reduce the stigma.
“If you look at other high-risk populations — youth and the elderly — there are just natural gathering places and ways to get to those groups: schools, primary care doctors, nursing homes, senior centers,” Medlock said. “But middle-age men are everywhere, and they’re less likely to be seeking help, so it’s on us to find where they are. I think that’s one of the barriers and one of the reasons we’re excited about Man Therapy.”
Mary Alice Sonnhalter, an ADM Board and Suicide Prevention Coalition spokeswoman, said mental health is often overlooked by every demographic, but especially among men.
“If you think about the watercooler conversations on Monday, what you hear is ‘I twisted my ankle,’ ‘I was a weekend warrior,’ ‘I overdid it,’ ” Sonnhalter said. “You don’t hear people say, ‘I was really anxious because of this.’ There’s nothing about your emotional health.”
To achieve success in reaching the male demographic, suicide prevention nonprofits in Colorado invented Dr. Mahogany with the help of an ad agency. Since then, the message has spread across the country and even into Australia.
Mahogany has been described in the New York Times as “Dr. Phil meets Ron Burgundy,” the Will Ferrell character popularized in the Anchorman film series.
In one video on Man Therapy’s website, www.mantherapy.org, Mahogany appears in 1980s-style gym shorts and demonstrates yoga — “in Sri Lanka, it’s the manliest way to relieve stress and depression” — with, shall we say, eye-opening and laughable consequences.
The website presents helpful links to resources and tools to encourage men to seek help for depression and stress. It even includes testimonials from men across the country, who talk about how they struggled with their mental health because of divorce or stress at work.
Local experts say men might be less likely to seek treatment for mental health due to societal pressure to appear tough and strong. Because studies show a fifth of people struggle with mental health, experts say it’s unacceptable for anyone to feel discouraged from seeking professional help.
“The hope is that the Man Therapy campaign decreases that,” Smith of the ADM Board said. “It makes it funny, it makes it normal … Maybe then, in an ideal world, men might start talking about this with their male friends.”
Nick Glunt can be reached at 330-996-3565 or nglunt@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGluntABJ.