The Federal Government has announced it will develop Australia's first National Men's Health Policy so as to tackle the gap between the health of men and women.

The policy will focus on overcoming the widespread resistance of men to seeking treatment, improving male-friendly health services and raising awareness of the preventable health problems that disproportionately affect men.

Launching the paper Setting the Scene: Developing a Men's Health Policy for Australia at the start of International Men's Health Week last month, Minister for Health Nicola Roxon explained: "Men's health is too often overlooked. We know that men face a specific set of issues and we are determined to help men tackle them."

These issues include the fact that:

• Men are expected to live 4.8 years less than women
• Men are three times more likely to commit suicide
• Men experience 70 percent of the burden of disease related to injury
• Men are over-represented in deaths related to HIV / AIDS

The health of indigenous men is also significantly worse than for any other group in Australia, with an average life expectancy of just 59 years - some 20 years less than their nonindigenous counterparts. The National Men's Health Policy will therefore incorporate a special focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island men's health and wellbeing.

Ms. Roxon said the scheme will begin with $460,000 for the National Suicide Prevention Strategy and $95,000 towards a ‘Would You Pass a Roadworthy' campaign aimed at encouraging preventative health checks to be established by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. The Men's Health Policy will then be developed over the next 12 months by an Expert Advisory Group from the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council.  Consultations will be held throughout Australia, for instance at a forum to be held in Canberra towards the end of this year, with opportunities for men at the local level to contribute to the policy prior to its completion.

Men surveyed by DCM largely welcomed the news of a national health policy for men. Jasper Knight of Surry Hills, New South Wales, said: "I think this policy is well overdue because when you look at the statistics relating to suicide, HIV and injury-related disease, you realise each one of them could affect someone you know, someone in your life. So it should be addressed, that's a very good thing." Women, however, seemed unsure as to how effective the policy will be. Kerryn Dowell of Doncaster, Victoria, conveyed: "It's a good start, but I am not sure if it's going to make a difference.

I think men have to have someone to relate health issues to - like Sam Newman coming out with his experience of prostate cancer. I think that sort of brings it home more than anything else." Only time will tell - the National Men's Health Policy is expected to be finalised at some stage in 2009. For more information, please click here.