The Men's Club group set up at Chorley library to reduce loneliness

The new Men’s Club is an independent, casual meet-up for all men to come to the library and socialise in a comfortable space.

Michael Barrett, 51, began the Men’s Club after he realised the activity groups held in the library had been typically all-female attended and wanted to change this to encourage more men to come and socialise.

Michael, who started work as a library assistant in January, said: “There was no men turning up to any of our usual groups, and I am the only man who works in the library as well. I just thought we need to get more men into these groups, so I said we should start a men’s club.

"With all the figures that have come out recently about men’s mental health and the increase of men struggling, certainly around Lancashire anyway. I just thought it would be a good idea.”

Figures from the World Health Organisation say that it is thought that one in eight men (12.5%) are diagnosed with a common mental health illness, such as depression, anxiety, panic disorder, or OCD. However, it should also be remembered that this figure is likely to be underestimated because men are less likely than women to report symptoms of common mental health problems.

With help from Chorley council, the library set up an informal open day for men to attend and form the group to see how they’d like to move forward and a questionnaire was generated to discover how users would like the club to evolve.

Michael said: “It’s early days at the moment, most turn up and just have a bru and a chat. It’s a slow burner at the moment, but as it goes on we hope to see more men turn up,

"There’s a lot of cliches that men don’t talk about how they feel, but I know lots of men who do. But I do think it’s more difficult for a man to come into the library and sit down at a group if it's all women, I know I’d find it difficult myself. The groups we have on are welcome for everyone but currently they are only attended by women, they shouldn’t be, but that’s the way it is. But even if we bring men in through the men’s club and then they join the other groups that would be great."

The group that runs every Friday 10am-12pm and is facilitated at the library, so far it has seen men come in and have a relaxed chat amongst one another allowing them to spend time with new faces.

Michael said: “With COVID a lot of people lost contact with their family and friends, so to have something where men can come out and talk. Eve if they don’t have much to say, they can just come and be in the company of other people.

"People who may come along can really look forward to it, it can be a focal point of their week and a reason to leave the house more. It’s a big thing to combat loneliness as there is a stigma around it.”

For any enquiries about the Men’s Club, you can email [email protected].