The Future Is Everyone: Why Men’s Mental Health Is a Social Issue, Not a Side Note

In her recent Los Angeles Times article, “Have you considered helping boys? The other gender gap”, Lisa Britton challenges readers to expand their empathy. She writes about how, even in well-meaning circles, we often overlook the growing crisis facing boys and men.

The current arc of society (especially social media) and its pressures are failing our boys and men, and we must do better.

It is a truth we see reflected in our clinical work every day. In recent decades, society has made historic progress in advancing equity for women and girls. That progress is essential and worth celebrating. Yet, alongside these gains, a quieter crisis has unfolded for men and boys. Rising rates of loneliness, suicide, and educational disengagement point to a widening gap in emotional and relational health.

The author makes several points about how much energy, time and resources have gone toward advocacy and support of girls and women in recent years. The question now is not whether we should continue supporting women, but whether we are ready to extend that same care and compassion to men – and how we get them to accept that support.

Neglecting Men’s Health Hurts Everyone

When men’s emotional and relational needs go unmet, the effects ripple far beyond the individual. Families lose fathers and partners to burnout and emotional distance. Workplaces lose leaders to quiet depression and self-medication. Communities lose role models who could have modeled resilience, vulnerability, and integrity.

This is not only a men’s issue. It is a social issue.

Just as women’s empowerment has strengthened families, economies, and communities, supporting men’s emotional development strengthens the systems we all depend on, from classrooms to boardrooms to relationships. Equality is not a zero-sum game. True balance means creating conditions where everyone can thrive.

Beyond Blame: Moving from “Toxic” to Systemic Empathy

As Britton points out, our cultural conversations about boys and men often drift toward blame. We talk about what is wrong with them rather than asking what systems are failing them.

The truth is more complex. Men are not broken versions of emotional beings. They are shaped by environments that reward suppression over self-reflection, competition over connection, and endurance over empathy. When care for men becomes entangled with judgment, we lose the opportunity for genuine healing and growth.

Systemic empathy invites us to look at the bigger picture. Educational structures, social narratives, and even aspects of our healthcare system have made emotional fluency harder for boys to develop and harder still for men to access later in life.

What Men Actually Need in Care

At Aim Psych, we have seen how men engage differently when therapy reflects their real needs. What helps most is not correction or criticism, but collaboration.

Men tend to respond when therapy offers three things:

• Relational safety: a space where they are met with respect, not repair.

• Nuanced language: conversations that move beyond clichés and into real, specific understanding.

• Collaboration: a shared process of exploration rather than instruction.

When these elements are present, therapy becomes a place of possibility.

Men reconnect with their pain in ways that lead to purpose. They rebuild relationships, rediscover agency, and cultivate emotional strength that benefits everyone around them.

The Future Is Everyone

Lisa Britton’s call for compassion toward boys and men is timely and necessary. Progress cannot be one-sided. True equity means holding both truths at once: celebrating women’s advancement while recognizing that men, too, are struggling in silence.

At Aim Psych, we believe that caring for men is not about taking something away from others. It is about adding empathy where it has long been missing. When we learn to care for boys and men with the same urgency and compassion we have extended elsewhere, we create a culture that is truly whole.

Because the future is not a contest between genders. The future is everyone.

If you’re interested in exploring what meaningful care for men can look like, we’d love to connect.