Encouraging Men to Talk about Suicide can Miss the Point A new qualitative study suggests that a sole emphasis in suicide prevention on encouraging men to ‘talk’ can be ineffective. 65 A new qualitative study suggests that a sole emphasis in suicide prevention on encouraging men to ‘talk’ about their mental distress can be ineffective. A new study published in the journal of Critical Public Health challenges commonplace assumptions about suicidality in men. Recently, a popular explanation for an increase in suicide among men is their inability to talk about their problems. These mainstream understandings of male suicidality consider the barriers to vulnerability for men given the expectations of masculinity. However, Amy Chandler, a critical suicidologist at the University of Edinburgh, finds in her research that this discourse around masculinity and suicide may actually exacerbate these issues.