THE first Swindon men’s mental health awareness campaign will launch next week.

From Monday, the Men’s Mental Health Swindon Facebook page will feature video, artwork, and plenty of tips to educate the community on how to spot signs of change in behaviour.

Businessman Alex Pollock, who is leading the campaign in Swindon said: “The way I look at mental health is that it can be visualised as a sliding scale, similar to physical health, we all have it, but not everyone is at the same place along the scale.

“I think it’s imperative that mental health awareness for both men and women is promoted, but the statistics make some interesting home truths."

Men are three times more likely to take their own lives than women and suicide is the biggest killer in men under the age of 50.

He added: “It’s time we started getting men to talk about how they feel: letting the world know how it is ok to not be ok and getting the wider community to ask the men in their lives not only ‘how are you?’, but asking twice with a ‘ but, how are you really.”