Insights
Mid Essex Men’s Health Inequalities – Research Report
From July 2023 to June 2024, Maldon & District CVS, Chelmsford CVS, and Community360 Braintree worked in partnership to explore men’s health inequalities across Mid Essex.
The focus was specifically on understanding the barriers faced by men aged 30 to 60 in accessing mental health support. Through targeted engagement and male involvement, the project aimed to shine a light on the challenges, inform local understanding, and build on existing community assets to improve mental health and wellbeing.
Key elements of the work included developing a male-focused community asset map, engaging directly with local people to identify barriers to access, specific work on suicide prevention, and co-designing new opportunities for support that are rooted in relationships, trust, and local knowledge.
Mid Essex ABCD Mapping – Research Report and Assets
Mid-Essex (which covers Chelmsford, Braintree, and Maldon) is home to many types of community assets, ranging from local social groups to district-wide health and wellbeing support.
There are many community venues across the districts that can be used in a variety of ways to support the community. The community is supported by vibrant groups of volunteers who develop and lead activities that improve residents’ quality of life. In the development of this report, we have identified more than 2,741 assets across Braintree District, Maldon District, and Chelmsford and we will count many more as we continue to learn from local communities. We need to ensure that there is infrastructure support, funding mechanisms, and policy-level support for many assets so that they can continue to function and support both people affected by the wider determinants of health as well as their staff and volunteers.
The report observes that community assets are often looked upon as a first port of call for people in the community and without them, they would not know where to turn.
