![\"Glen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4c8c92fb525cdb4554cde47fb1fe7b4287c46ee1.jpg\")
Camera IconGlen Dunkerton speaks to a business in the South West. Credit: Regional Men’s Health Initiative<\/p>\nGlen Dunkerton, a community educator with the Regional Men\u2019s Health Initiative, says speaking up about health issues and checking in with mates is the first step to staying on track health-wise.<\/p>\n
The health initiative travels across the State to community groups, events, and shows or field days to talk about men\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
One of these events is being held this week in Albany, with community organisation Play in the Park hosting a free dads and kids breakfast at Eyre Park on Saturday morning, from 7am.<\/p>\n
The Regional Men\u2019s Health Initiative and Amity Health Communities for Children will be set-up for the morning and available to speak to any attendees.<\/p>\n
The initiative is also travelling to agricultural shows and field days to offer what they call a \u201cfast track pit stop\u201d, designed as a 10-minute overall health check-in, wherein they measure weight, blood pressure and mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cMen are behind in a lot of health areas, including heart problems and cancer, and there is no reason men should be dying first of these diseases apart from the fact that they\u2019re not engaging with the screening processes and catching it early,\u201d Mr Dunkerton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is it\u2019s a simple framework, but it gives you a pretty good overall picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth check-ins can be as easy as that, five or 10 minutes just to go \u2018am I okay?\u2019 and that can make all the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Dunkerton said the stigma of men not talking about their wellbeing was more true in the regions, and encouraged anyone to talk to a mate.<\/p>\n
Camera IconGlen Dunkerton speaks to a business in the South West. Credit: Regional Men’s Health Initiative<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing is getting the conversation started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a stigma that blokes don\u2019t talk, and that\u2019s the value of a group like a men\u2019s shed, that\u2019s where that idea comes from.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of blokes aren\u2019t comfortable talking face to face but will talk shoulder to shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo while they\u2019re working on fixing a car or a piece of machinery, often guys are happy to talk while part of their energy is focused on something else.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeaking up about how you\u2019re feeling and what\u2019s going on in your life is the first big step, and it\u2019s the one a lot of men struggle to take.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur motto is before it all gets too much, talk to a mate, and that\u2019s the crux of it really.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be a big serious thing, it can just be having a chat and checking in now and then, and making that a regular part of routine that you\u2019re comfortable with.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf health and wellbeing can come up in conversation amid the fishing, the farming and the footy, men will be better off for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Glen Dunkerton, a community educator with the Regional Men\u2019s Health Initiative, says speaking up about health issues and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135983,64,63,87601,137,8384,1625,514,44,52350],"class_list":{"0":"post-462124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-albany-advertiser","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-great-southern","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-health-wellbeing","14":"tag-lifestyle","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-regional-wa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}