can generally be quite fastidious about our machinery. It doesn’t matter if we are farmers, timber workers, truckers, miners or car owners when a service is due on our machinery we either do it ourselves or we get the mechanic to do it.  

Our most valuable piece of machinery however is our own health – if we are incapacitated then we are unable to operate all the other machinery that we own. But when it comes to us blokes looking after ourselves we are generally not very good at it! We mostly don’t have a “maintenance schedule” and tend to use the “wait and see” approach. Physically, if we have an ache or pain, our attitude is often that of “I’ll battle through this” or “I’ll wait a while and see if this gets better by itself”. For most of us we get away with this most of the time.

“Spanner in the Works?”

a Men’s Health initiative by the Australian Men’s Shed Association.

“Spanner in the Works” is a program designed to provide some key health messages to us men in a form that is understandable and achievable. Although the program was originally designed for Men’s Sheds it has proved to be easily adapted to other groups. “Spanner in the Works?” is not about telling men what to do but sets out some things that men can do (or not do) to improve their health and their chances of a longer and happier life. It gives men the opportunity to make adjustments as they see fit. Often minor adjustments can have a major impact on health, relationships with loved ones and friends and work.

The program has the following main aims:

• Provide some basic health screening and advice to men:
• utilising the staff resources of the local health service.
• referral on of men to health professionals (as appropriate)
• Provide “men friendly” health information and health awareness through the “Spanner in the Works?” booklet.
• Have local health service providers and local men engage with each other

NB – “Spanner in the Works?” is should NOT be considered a replacement for a check up by your GP.

[Article from http://mensshed.org/]