Page 44 - Retail Pharmacy Assistants - November 2020

42 MEN’S HEALTH FROM PAGE 41 a welcome change in the way that we think about ourselves and our world. “In my experience, men are now much more open to talk about their emotional experiences and the impact of the environment on their emotions. It’s almost as if Covid gave us permission to be vulnerable. “It seems people have accepted that being impacted by Covid doesn’t make you a sissy. There’s no shame in finding it difficult because the kind of global changes we’re looking at would impact anyone,” Mr Alberts said. Use the mo-ment Having recognised the importance of engaging with men on the subject of men’s health, one of the challenges people face is knowing what to say. “Maybe there’s a scenario where someone is in your pharmacy collecting a script for a drug and you happen to know that this is related to a prostate cancer diagnosis,” said Mr Gledhill. “Sometimes all it needs is a simple, ‘Hey, how you going? Are you doing alright?’, and it could turn out to be one of the most powerful conversations you’ll ever have because that’s the conversation they need to have right now. Having someone ask that first question, I think, is really powerful,” he said. Having started the conversation, it’s important to keep the dialogue flowing. Recognising that many people want to help but need skills to lead the conversation deeper, ‘Movember’ has launched a fantastic, interactive, online conversation resource. “In this pandemic environment it became really clear to us that, more than ever, we need men and women around the world to be connecting better and to be asking themselves better questions around how they’re doing,” said Mr Gledhill. RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • NOV 2020