Wall Scholar brings men’s health exhibit to small town Alberta
October 9, 2014
Wall Scholar and UBC Nursing Professor, John Oliffe, is bringing the Man-Up-Against-Suicide exhibit, which was on display in Vancouver this summer, to Rimbey, Alberta – a rural community an hour south west of Edmonton.
Risk for suicide among men in rural areas increases by 40% or more the further away one gets from urban centres. Men are four to five times more likely to die by suicide than women in rural areas in Canada. But it wasn’t the stark statistics that brought two local Rimbey friends to lobby Oliffe’s team, asking them to extend their research project to the small town in Alberta.
Emma Palm and Cayley Thomas Haug, united by the loss of both of their brothers to suicide, lobbied John Oliffe and his colleague, John Ogrodniczuk, to bring the exhibit to Rimbey. Palm and Haug will co-host the Movember-funded photography exhibit in Rimbey from October 16-20, 2014.
The Man-Up Against Suicide project, led by Oliffe and Ogrodniczuk, also a Rimbey native, interviewed over 40 men and women who were affected by men’s suicide. The participants narrated their experiences through taking photographs, and a collection of these photographs are shared at various local, national, and international photo exhibits as well as online.
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