"Man Strong" and the Numbers Nobody Collected

"Man strong."

Many of us heard it before we could spell it. In Grenada, in Guyana, in Jamaica, in Trinidad and Tobago, in Barbados, in Suriname and in Antigua and Barbuda, it came in one form or another. The same words travel to South America, to Africa, to Asia and to our communities abroad. A boy falls, scrapes his knee, starts to cry, and somebody says it. Usually with love, and a little worry about what the world will do to a soft boy. I understand that worry. I also think it has cost us more than we like to admit.

November is Men's Mental Health Month, and Movember is back. This year its Move challenge asks people to cover 60 miles over the month, one mile for each of the 60 men Movember says the world loses to suicide every hour. Sixty miles is a long walk. It is also, I suspect, shorter than the distance many men travel in their heads before they say "I'm not okay" to another person.

I want to look at the whole Caribbean here, not one island. Some countries have clear figures. Some have almost none. That difference is part of the story.

What the numbers show

Men make up most of the suicides in the Americas. A 2023 study by the Pan American Health Organization and its partners found that 79 percent of suicides in the region occur among men. It also found that the Americas is the only region in the world where suicide mortality has been rising since 2000.

The figures I could check come from different years and different sources, so read them as snapshots:

• Guyana: The World Health Organization's 2023 estimate puts the suicide rate at 40.28 per 100,000 people, the highest in the Americas. A 2024 report by the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network says men aged 20 to 30 and 50 to 65 account for the most suicides there.

• Suriname: The same WHO estimate puts Suriname at 25.37 per 100,000, the second highest in the Americas.

• Trinidad and Tobago: The WHO's 2023 estimate is 8.68 per 100,000. Ministry of Health figures, drawn from the Crime and Problem Analysis Unit, count 653 male suicides from 2016 to 2023. Men aged 60 and over had the most deaths. The records do not note motives.

• Barbados: Barbados Statistical Service data, reported in 2024, counts 37 men who died by suicide from 2016 to 2023, about three times the 12 women in the same period.

• Jamaica: Police figures reported by Caribbean National Weekly count 67 suicide deaths in 2024, 61 of them men. The paper described it as the highest count since 2000.

• Antigua and Barbuda: The Ministry of Health's 2021 call for action asked, "What of Antigua and Barbuda?" The page I read gave no national figure.

• Grenada: I did not find a published national series that I could check. A 2023 commentary on Grenada said that precise statistics "are not readily available," and described a rise based on reports from professionals. I will not guess a number.

Please read those numbers slowly. Each one was somebody's son. Somebody's brother, someone who fixed things, someone who made people laugh at the gate. If you are reading this after losing someone, I am sorry, and you do not have to keep reading.

Where the data is missing, and why that matters

Thin data is not a neutral fact. A 2024 systematic review of studies on Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago found only eight studies that met its standards: five on Guyana, two on Trinidad and Tobago and one on Suriname. The review says more research is needed on suicide laws, bereavement and migration.

Several things keep the count low. Stigma keeps families quiet. Laws matter too. Guyana's 2022 Suicide Prevention Act ended the criminal penalty for attempting suicide, but the law was rarely enforced. In Trinidad and Tobago, attempting suicide is still a crime. The World Health Organization, as the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network reports, says criminalising suicide makes people less willing to seek help, and leaves the data inaccurate.

What is not counted is not helped. A problem with no number rarely gets a budget, a clinic or a line in a health plan. When a country cannot see its men's deaths clearly, it cannot tell which men need help first.

Men's silence shows up in the gaps

Men's silence is part of why the numbers are thin. Reagan Rowans, principal of the Institute of Law and Academic Studies in Trinidad and Tobago, says society has taught men that they are not free to express emotion the way girls are. A man who does not talk about pain is less likely to reach a clinic, a counsellor or a researcher, so his story is less likely to be written down. The gap in the data and the gap in the conversation are the same gap.

Fabian Sargeant, who runs monthly support groups for men in Barbados, names the cost of living, pressure at home and alcohol and drug use as weights many men carry. He says men who feel they have no way out are the ones the groups most need to reach.

Jamaica is one example, not the whole story

In Jamaica, Dr. Georgia Rose, a senior clinical psychologist with the Western Regional Health Authority, told JIS News that men have been fed a narrative that they should not experience, acknowledge or express their emotions, so they struggle and do not ask for help. She also named what often fills the gap: more alcohol, more marijuana, whatever else a man can get his hands on.

Lee Townsend, a former guidance counsellor who now does community mental health work in the UK, wrote in the Jamaica Observer about hearing "Man strong" and "Man stan up inna di ting." Those messages, he says, can build resilience and teach disconnection in the same breath. He asks readers to swap the question "What is wrong with him?" for "What has he lived through?"

I keep turning that second question over. It changes the man in front of you from a problem into a person with a history. It is a question every country on this list can ask, even where the numbers are still missing.

The door is not locked

Dr. Rose said more men are showing up at mental health clinics across Jamaica, asking how to cope with what is on them. She called it a positive step. Jamaica's health minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton, has said he wants to see the day when people talk about going to see a counsellor as easily as they mention going to see a doctor. The rest of the region can start that conversation with its own men now, before the counts are complete.

Townsend makes a point that families should hear: for many men the first person they tell is not a clinician. It is a friend, a cousin, a coworker. So the ordinary conversation matters more than most people think.

When a man says "I'm good," there is often a beat where the conversation could go further. Staying in that pause a little longer, without rushing to fix anything, can be enough for someone to feel heard. Faith has its place here too, and Townsend is right that prayer and professional support can walk together.

Fathers, uncles, pastors, coaches: boys tend to watch what you do with your feelings far more than they listen to what you say about them.

I keep writing about this because silence is never empty. It is full of everything a person could not say, and some of it never reaches a number. Movember wants men to grow a moustache and start talking. I would settle for one honest sentence at the kitchen table, and for every country to start counting what happens to its men.

Keep the conversation going

The podcast explores this theme, including the episode "Too Strong to Need Help?" Listen on the Artistic Alchemy podcast. For a longer read, see Dr. Natasha Charles McQueen's book, The Emotionally Safe Man, on her Amazon author page.

A note on support

This post is shared for education and reflection and is not medical or mental health advice. If you or someone you love is struggling, please contact a licensed mental health professional, your doctor or a local clinic. Find a helpline near you at findahelpline.com or befrienders.org. In an emergency, call your local emergency services. In the United States, call or text 988.