International Mens Day 2025
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International Mens Day 2025
Wednesday, 19 November, 2025International Men’s Day is here, as the world recognises and celebrates men and the positive impact they have on society. However, it’s also a day to raise awareness of the struggles that men face, whether that be through societal expectations or their mental health and wellbeing. The day has been celebrated since 1999 and has sought to promote positive male role models through everyday men.
Bath Spa University has been at the forefront of championing mental health and highlighting the importance of speaking about it. BSU trained 65 staff members as Mental Health First Aiders back in 2021, with the number growing to 87 by 2025. These steps were taken to ensure staff wellbeing, and to try and break the stigma surrounding mental health.
Mental health first aid first came about in England through MHFA England, a social enterprise founded in 2007 with a vision to improve awareness, provide training, and give the skills required to help tackle mental health. MHFA England has since provided training to over 20,000 workplaces and trained over one million people in improving their knowledge and skills surrounding mental health.
Speaking with Robin Honeyman, who works as part of IT Services at BSU, about his role as a Mental Health First Aider:
“Throughout my day-to-day work as part of IT services I carry out an Auxiliary role of Mental Health First Aider. This provides initial support to colleagues in distress by listening without judgment, spotting early signs, and guiding them to professional help while promoting awareness and reducing stigma. My experience has been dealing with colleagues’ issues with work stress, difficulties in family life, divorce or discovering they are neurodiverse, and how to best handle it.”
Robin explains how he became a Mental Health First Aider:
“A few years ago, like many men have done, I had suffered my own mental health crisis. To overcome this, I had to learn new skills and adapt different lifestyle practices to become a better and more robust version of myself. The more I learned about the subject the more I realised that there was a crisis within men’s mental health that has been around for at least two decades. When the offer to become a MHFA it just seemed the natural step to help other people. Encouraging people and men especially to open up, without judgement, is key to ensuring we have a better world to live and work in.”
It is not only staff who can receive mental health help, but students too. Through Student Wellbeing Services, students can book fifty-minute mental health appointments with a professional mental health practitioner, to help guide students through any challenges or issues that may arise.
There has been a rise in awareness surrounding men’s mental health over the last twenty years. However, there is still work to be done to ensure that men feel comfortable speaking about their mental health and seeking the help that they need. Mental Health First Aiders like Robin, and the work being done by Student Wellbeing Services, are hoping they can encourage more people, especially men, to speak more openly about their mental health.
If you have been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this article, you can contact the Student Wellbeing Team on studentwellbeing@bathspa.ac.uk or if you want to become a Mental Health First Aider and have queries about the Mental Health First Aiders Staff Network, then get in touch with j.ponte@bathspa.ac.uk.