Tomorrow Man’s workshops are saving men from suicide by intervening early

Life-saving workshops for men and boys are aiming to intervene early and reverse the troubling trend of male suicide. WARNING: The following content discusses suicide.

Teenage boys are twice as likely as girls to die by suicide.

As boys grow into men, the figure jumps significantly.

By age 55, men are nearly four times likely than women to die by suicide.

Tomorrow Man has delivered 10,000 workshops to over 325,000 men and boys in the hope of reversing this trend by intervening early.

The organisation runs sessions in education settings and sporting clubs to equip young men with the skills needed to address harmful masculine stereotypes.

Co-founder and chief executive Paige Campbell said she started Tomorrow Man with her husband Tom Harkin in response to the need they saw in the community. 

“When we started this nothing like Tomorrow Man existed,” Ms Campbell said.

“At the time we were losing seven men a day to suicide.

“We knew if we could get men in the room and disrupt that stereotype by giving them the tools and a training ground to practice speaking to their mates, that could create significant change.”

Experienced psychologist and counsellor Paige Campbell, is the co-founder of Tomorrow Man. Picture: Toby Hudson Photography

Ms Campbell said the program had been successful so far, with a number of past participants reaching out to her later in life to say that intervention saved them from suicide.

But much has changed in the masculine space since Tomorrow Man begun in 2017.

Ms Campbell said social media and the manosphere has led many young men to feel confused about their identity and what it means to be a man.

“It’s become more complex for men,” she said.

“There is also a massive polarisation between young men and women, so we are doing a lot to address the empathy gap.

“We see young men want to understand how they can show up better for the women in their lives, and we try to equip them with those tools.”

Monash University PhD candidate Dana Meads assessed the impact a Tomorrow Man workshop had on 183 boys in Years 10 and 11 at different schools in New South Wales and Victoria.

Ms Meads said the interventions she observed had a positive impact on the boys she interviewed. Picture: Supplied

Ms Meads found for many boys, having an opportunity to speak openly about personal difficulties with their peers in the workshop resulted in improved relations with friends, including increased compassion, trust, connection, and the use of new social-emotional skills, such as active listening.

Many also reported a greater willingness to talk openly with family and expressed a desire for more flexible masculine identities.

Ms Meads said these shifts were crucial for suicide prevention by giving young men the skills and language to address their challenges.

As domestic violence deaths dominate the headlines, Ms Campbell said interventions such as Tomorrow Man are more important than ever.

“Right now statistics in Australia show we lose one woman every four days at the hands of a man,” she said.

“We see this work as more important than ever.

“This is about stopping violence before it starts by giving men the tools and capabilities to manage their emotions.

“To talk through instead of turning to violence.”

Originally published as Tomorrow Man’s workshops are saving men from suicide by intervening early