Men’s Health Month 2025: Listening Beyond the Silence
By Dr Ewald Crause
For the Psychological Society of South Africa
June is Men’s Health Month. But for many men in South Africa, health remains something unspoken. Not due to a lack of problems, but because speaking comes at a cost. In too many homes, clinics, and counselling rooms, silence has become the strategy. And for many men, silence is safer than honesty.
This year’s theme, “Check In, Not Out”, calls for early intervention and preventative care. It is a message that needs to land differently here. Because in the South African context, men are not simply failing to check in with doctors or therapists. They’re also checking out of themselves, their families, and for some, even their futures.
As psychology practitioners and academics, we observe it in statistics and sense it in the absences and silences. The man who doesn’t return for a second session. The father who disappears from the school meeting. The young adult whose first appointment only comes after an attempt. For too many, help arrives too late.
Behind these moments are pressures that psychology professionals know well. High rates of unemployment. Cycles of intergenerational trauma. The burden of being the provider, even when there is nothing left to give. Social scripts that still reward men for being silent, stoic, and self-contained…until they break.
In practice, male clients often arrive not because they chose therapy, but because someone else did. A partner insisted. A boss threatened. A court ordered. When they do arrive, they rarely use clinical language. They don’t say “anxiety” or “depression.” They talk about pressure. Sleeplessness. Losing control. Being “off.” These are not just linguistic differences. They are warnings. If we are not listening closely, we miss the distress altogether.
To work effectively with men, our role is not to convince them to talk. It is to ensure that when they do, they are heard without judgment, interruption, or interpretation. That our language doesn’t assume help-seeking is familiar or safe. That we acknowledge the resistance without reinforcing it.
Intervention needs to be practical, not idealistic. Most men are not looking for long-term therapy. They are looking for something that works. Brief interventions, solution-focused conversations, peer models, role clarity, and support that aligns with their roles as workers, fathers, sons, or leaders. Respect matters. So does structure. So does knowing when to step back and refer.
But this is not only about individual therapy. It is about the systems in which we operate. Access to care is uneven. Services in rural and peri-urban areas remain difficult to reach. Long waiting lists in the public sector often mean that prevention becomes impossible. For many men, especially working-class men, there is no clear path between noticing that something is wrong and receiving the support to address it. That space between is where we lose them.
This month must not be reduced to awareness slogans. The work is not about getting men to speak. It is about creating spaces where they do not have to defend their pain. It is about reducing the threshold for help. About making support a familiar part of life, not a crisis response. About including men in the broader mental health conversation without assuming they already know the terms of engagement.
To the men reading this: this month is not a campaign. It is a reminder that your life matters. That survival is not the only goal. That checking in is a strength, not a liability. That you are not meant to carry everything alone.
To the psychology professionals reading this: we can change the trajectory. To create systems, practices, and messages that speak to men without demanding that they first speak like us. That is the challenge. That is the opportunity.
Let’s meet men where there are, not where society expects them to be. And not just in June, but in the work we do every day.
