The Men’s Mental Health Awards 2021 – Our Big New Event!

Times have been hard over the last year and a half, and it seems we are in for a long period of stresses and strains of one sort or another. Before the pandemic, mental health had become a major issue, but now the situation is clearly one where mental health must be placed at the heart of the national agenda. Happily, there are many incredible people working and campaigning and raising awareness of mental health who are leading the way for a future of better well-being for everyone. So incredible are they – with many often working behind the scenes – that we feel they deserve to be properly celebrated.

We are therefore excited to announce that this November we will be holding our first Men’s Mental Health Awards.

Obviously at The Book of Man we concentrate on men’s mental health – where the taboos are keenly felt and hard to shift – which is reflected in these awards, but we’ll be celebrating people from all genders who do great things for men in this area.

The event will take place on 26th January 2022 at The House of St Barnabas – a brilliant homeless charity and members’ club in Soho, London – where we we will be giving out trophies to some very deserving people.

Our partners for the event are suicide prevention movement, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), and The Speakers Collective, a social enterprise of mental health experts.

The award categories are as follows:

Campaigner – a person who has made a big impact with a campaign or fundraising activity.

Community Champ – awarded to a local hero who has done outstanding work to help people in their area.

Change-Maker in Sport – for leading the way in breaking stigmas and providing support for those in sport.

Workplace Leader – an outstanding person who has done wonders to bring mental health onto the agenda of a company.

Support Services Hero – awarded to a person who works within the health industry who has particular wonders for mental health.

Artist – a musician, artist, actor, or anyone in the creative fields who has raised awareness of mental health.

Storyteller – for a writer, film-maker, director, who has brought mental health issues to light in compelling stories.

LGBTQ+ hero – for someone who has worked or campaigned for greater support for LGBTQ+ people

Innovation – awarded to a new piece of tech or a start-up or any kind of game-changing idea which is helping mental health matters.

Editor’s Special Award – awarded to an individual or organisation that deserves special recognition. Chosen by the BOM Editor.

Outstanding Contribution – for a special individual in the public eye who has brought mental health issues to national attention.

Hey! And we want you, the public, to help us with selecting the winners of the awards. We want you to nominate candidates for these awards, before it is taken to our team of judges – including members of CALM and the Speakers Collective – to make the final decisions.

People can nominate candidates by emailing martin@thebookofman.com with names of people, along with support statements of no more than 500 words (if you see fit, just a few sentences will do!), along with relevant links. We are particularly interested in you telling us about the unsung heroes you know in the above categories…oh and you don’t need to suggest people in every category if you don’t want to!

New closing date for entries is 30th November.

We want this to be a warm, collective thing rather than a competition, so we’ll try to celebrate as many people as we can, in one way or another!