King County Tries To Get Men To Seek Social Agency Help Service Providers Form Plan Of Outreach To Men

Social service agencies say one of the main barriers to getting more men to use social service programs is to get them to admit they need help - and to feel comfortable seeking it.

King County is trying to break down some of the barriers.

Over the past four months, the King County Department of Community and Human Services has been working with men and family-service providers on the issue. The working group developed a plan that focuses on offering physical and mental health counseling for men dealing with fatherhood, parental responsibility and other family issues.

“There are a lot of resources for women - which we applaud - but there’s a terrific lack of resources for men in the area,” said Dave Ault, one of three men who first approached the county with the idea of encouraging men to take advantage of the services available.

“There needs to be more of an outreach to men, so they feel they can ask for help,” Ault said.

“There is lots of literature showing social services weren’t developed with men’s issues in mind,” said Jim Henning, of the county Department of Community and Human Services. ‘And agencies admit they haven’t done too much to be aware of why men don’t use their services more.”

Agencies offering aid to female victims of domestic violence and to single-parent families headed by women - who head 91 percent of the single-parent households receiving welfare, state records show - may inadvertently send the wrong signal to men in need.

“Often men are made to feel they are automatically the problem,” Ault said. “And, men themselves frequently have the misperception that a man should always be able to fend for himself.”

Community and Human Services has been able to gather about $10,000 from the existing county budget to fund a pilot program involving several agencies.

Sharon Webb, program manager for Eastside Healthy Start, which provides home visits to new parents, said her group is trying to work with the father as well as the mother.

“It’s easy to get focused on just the mother,” Webb said. “We need to do a better job including males from the beginning, whether they reside with the child or not.”

Her group is trying to recruit more men as employees and volunteers.

Agencies will be evaluated in the following areas, Henning said:

Does the agency advertise its programs in a way that is “male positive” or “male negative”?

Are programs offered that specifically serve men or address their issues?

What is the male-female ratio of agency staff? And, does the agency have a physical environment and decor that is “male friendly”?

After a year, success will be measured through a men’s survey conducted at Little League games, video stores, libraries, churches, barber shops and other places where men tend to gather.