The Proper Blokes Club is a men’s wellbeing organisation working to tackle the stigma around male mental health by organising walk and talks in various locations across London.
The London-based organisation, the Proper Blokes Club, aims to get men more comfortable talking about mental health in a non-judgemental environment.
Founder Scott Oughton-Johnson said: “They get a double hit really. They come out, they do a bit of exercise, but they’re also having a conversation as well at the same time, so it’s got a double feel-good feeling to it.”
The first walk took place in September 2020 in Southwark, where Oughton-Johnson is from, and now hosts 20 walks a week across 10 to 11 boroughs in London.
Kingston Council directly reached out to The Proper Blokes Club to start walks in the borough after the club registered themselves as a community service, and walks have been going in Kingston for just over three months.
Speaking on what inspired its creation, Oughton-Johnson said he faced challenges with his own mental health before Covid hit. “I knew I needed somewhere, I identified it and got some support. I’d done my eight-to-ten sessions with the NHS, which was great at setting me up and pushing me forward, but I needed to find daily ways of managing how I was feeling,” he said.
Oughton-Johnson explained that a lot of the existing organisations were tailored to people with severe mental health concerns, whereas his were issues where he was still able to function relatively normally, and was able to work.
During the pandemic, Oughton-Johnson started volgging on a Facebook page to see if people could resonate with what he was going through. He started the walks from here.
“On the first day of walks, nobody turned up. I waited, and 15 minutes later, the first lad came running towards me,” he said.
From that first walk with one other man in September 2020, the organisation grew organically, and 4 years later, there are 130 men on average attending weekly walks with 500-600 men involved in total.
Oughton-Johnson believes that men are more likely to open up during the walks in the absence of professionals due to the misguided taboo around male mental health.
“A lot of us have all had therapy and stuff like that. And once they’ve had a conversation with us they think, alright, well, I look like him, I’m pretty similar to him. He’s gotten support and he’s fine, so I can do it as well,” he said.
In this way, the Proper Blokes Club works as a bridge between having an initial conversation to then seeking professional support.
Oughton-Johnson said that a lot of the men who start walking with the group are reserved and shy, but the overwhelming impact of the organisation is the rebuilding of their confidence.
“All of a sudden, a few weeks later, they’re brimming with confidence. You can see it in their faces,” he said.
According to the Priory Group, 77% of men have suffered with symptoms of common mental health conditions such as anxiety, stress or depression. This can be down to an array of factors such as work pressure, financial issues or health concerns.
However, 40% of men have never spoken to anyone about their mental health and the same number said it would take thoughts of suicide or self-harm to compel them to get professional help.
In serious circumstances, this can lead to more severe mental health concerns and even suicide. According to Samaritans data, men are three times more likely to die by suicide in England than females.
Although Oughton-Johnson acknowledged that slowly the tide is changing with societal attitudes towards male mental health, there is still a long way to go.
“The problem is now. The problem isn’t tomorrow or in 100 years time. Right now, today, there’s been a number of lads that have taken their own lives because they feel they haven’t got the support out there and are struggling to talk anyway. We need to be more proactive about making things happen,” he said.
The Proper Blokes Club is part of the machine that’s working to change men’s and society’s attitudes towards male mental health, and Oughton-Johnson is pleased with the impact he’s had on individuals lives so far.
