In 2022, Jeffery Hale Community Partners received a small grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada to start a suicide prevention initiative for men. Fitness trainer and Australian expat Jarryd Smith was hired as program co-ordinator. His plan was to give a dozen or so young anglophone fathers the opportunity to make friends and reduce their isolation through basketball. The initial pilot program lasted six weeks.

Four years later, the basketball program is thriving with more than 30 members. It has also given rise to a multifaceted men’s mental health program involving parenting support, violence prevention, community involvement, social activities and a range of other programs by and for men.

“It started with dads as the focus, but then there were guys showing up who weren’t dads … and I found they were the most vulnerable,” said Smith. “If you look at the statistics, guys aged between 35 and 55 [are] at the highest risk of crisis, but there’s nothing to support that group of guys, and it’s even more so if that person is single and lives alone.”

English-speaking newcomers, who are away from extended family support networks and may have trouble communicating with neighbours or colleagues, are especially vulnerable, and most existing men’s mental health programs in the region don’t have the staff to provide regular support in English. Half of the men at Smith’s basketball program are anglophone Quebecers; the other half are “from everywhere, western Canada, the U.S., African and Asian countries.”

Verity Jordan, We Mind mental health program co-ordinator at JH Partners, explained that the professionals involved in JH Partners’ wellness programs work closely with their counterparts at Jeffery Hale Hospital, with whom they share a building. “I met with the team downstairs and said, ‘Right, how can I use this money to help you and offer complementary services to the community?’ One of the biggest things that they said was that they only see men when it is a crisis situation, and that what can we do to assist the men in our community before it’s too late?”

In general, men “prefer informal forms of support, rather than formal forms of support like mental health professionals,” Jordan said. She recruited Smith to run the program because she felt it “really needed to be by and for men, rather than me as a young woman saying, ‘OK, men, come and do things.’”

“Men would rather talk shoulder to shoulder [than] face to face,” Smith said. “Having a chat before the game, putting their shoes on, afterwards in the car park, that’s where we’re building that community. The other thing is, when guys don’t show up for a couple of weeks, I can send them a message and it’s not weird. ‘Hey, I haven’t seen you for a while; is everything okay?’”

Smith is proud to have created an “ecosystem” where the pickup basketball players can not only make friends, but also be directed to other programs such as the prenatal classes and parent-and- child activities for dads that Smith runs, or the associated Living Without Violence or Positive Parenting programs. He has also provided a bridge of mutual trust between men in crisis situations and nurses or social workers “downstairs” at the hospital.

In collaboration with the Groupe d’aide aux personnes impulsives (GAPI), a Quebec City- based violence prevention group, Smith is working on creating a support group for men going through breakups, who studies show are at greatly increased risk of lashing out violently or turning to self-harm. It will be the first regular English-language support group of its kind in the region, responding to growing demand. Further details about this program will appear in a future edition of the QCT.

For further information about any of the men’s mental health programs offered by JH Partners, jhpartners.net/programs-and-activities/mens-health.