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Survivors charity aimed at men opens new building in Salford

By James Ross on 17th December 2018 in Health

A Survivors lead charity group has today opened their new therapy room in Salford .

Survivors Manchester hope that the new building can reach more males survivors of sexual abuse and work with them through their personal issues.

The group which is a survivors-run based charity with their work concentrating on empowering men to make their own positive choices in life.

Senior Trauma Therapist, Ross Phillips believes there is too many barriers for men: “It’s hard for men to talk about their feelings, it’s hard for men to acknowledge what they’ve been through, what they’ve suffered.

“In society there’s so many barriers in the way and the best thing we can do is to start having these conversations.

“Start to allow these men out there who suffer in silence to come forward and get that support.”

Becky Roberts, Communications Lead at Survivors Manchester, believes this new building will help them to keep growing: “I think the work that we do is so much more than the base in which we are.

“For us here, it’s what it represents.

“We’ve worked very closely with our expert advisory panel, which includes current and previous clients, to check that we continue to meet the needs of survivors.”

Survivors Manchester was recently involved in Coronation Street with the David Platt story line where his character was raped.

This saw an increase of 17,000% in calls to the male national helpline.

Jim Pollard, editor for men’s health forum, believes it’s getting easier for men: “Younger generations seem to find it easier than the other one.

“I do think that there is stuff around what is considered to be expected of men, being strong and silent, still persist around men.

“Society have certain expectations around men and men have certain expectations around themselves.”

Mr Pollard goes on to say that more needs to be done for men to have support available for them to be able to talk: “There’s still a massive amount to do.

“Attitudes change and men are more likely to talk than they were but when you still see that three quarters of suicide are men shows that it’s not changing enough.”