Noel Richardson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3761730 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Noel Richardson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Noel |
| FAMILY NAME | Richardson |
| SIGNATURE | RICHARDSON N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute of Technology Carlow |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2060-2338 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Health follows football
Men carrying the greatest burden of preventable ill health are among the least likely to be reached by conventional health promotion. Football-based initiatives have demonstrated capacity to engage such men, yet the cultural mechanisms through which sustained engagement and health outcomes are achieved remain poorly understood. This paper explores how football culture and the organizational culture of the Football Cooperative (FC) initiative, an …
Factors influencing the mental health help-seeking behaviours of construction workers in Ireland
Men in the construction industry are at a higher risk for suicidality when compared to the general male population. While industry-specific challenges such as excessive working hours and a pressurized work environment are contributory factors, deeply embedded masculine norms within the industry can further exacerbate this risk by discouraging mental health disclosure and help-seeking. Against this backdrop, managers occupy a pivotal position to p…
Suicide literacy, suicide stigma, and help-seeking attitudes among men in a university setting in Ireland
This study sought to explore the relationship between sociodemographic-, mental health-, knowledge-, attitudinal-, and conformity to masculine norms variables with suicide literacy, suicide stigma, and help-seeking attitudes among men in a university setting (n = 471) in Ireland. Multiple linear regression with backward elimination was used to determine the independent variables associated with suicide literacy, suicide stigma, and help-seeking a…
Effectiveness of a process-based approach to farmer wellbeing
Among farmers, mental health and suicide are noted concerns in the literature. Practical barriers, stigma and shame may impede engagement with support. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy offers a means of providing support to those experiencing mental health concerns. An evaluation of a six-session, online, individually facilitated intervention with six Irish farmers (age 39-69 years) was completed using a randomized, concurrent, multiple-baseline…
You Have to Make It Normal, That’s What We Do”
Men have a higher risk of suicide compared to women, with those in male-dominated industries such as construction being particularly vulnerable. These industries are typically characterised as 'macho' environments, endorsing traditional masculine norms that reinforce mental health stigma and delay help-seeking. The workplace is a promising setting for engaging men with issues around their mental health. Although managers can play a key role by co…
The Development of the Cairde General Awareness Training
Suicide is a leading cause of death among construction workers, particularly younger and lower-skilled employees. Barriers such as stigma, low mental health literacy, and traditional masculine norms hinder help-seeking in this male-dominated sector. Few mental health interventions are tailored to this context. This study developed a co-designed, theory-informed training to improve mental health literacy, reduce stigma, and increase help-seeking a…
Capturing the wider benefits from football participation
The computed SROI ratios for a single site and for ten sites compare favourably with those of other health initiatives particularly other football and community based SROI evaluations. Furthermore, this study quantifies the benefits of football participation from a mental health and social perspective in addition to physical benefits, and it also highlights the benefits of football participation to other stakeholders such as participants' family …
Football cooperative
Across the western world, men tend to have lower life expectancy compared to women and have higher mortality rates for most of the leading causes of deaths at all ages. While biological factors such as genetics and hormones may seem to contribute to men’s heightened vulnerability to certain diseases and health conditions, these elements alone do not fully explain the significant disparities observed in health outcomes between men and women. To ad…
Mental Health Stigma Reduction Interventions Among Men
Stigma surrounding mental health, particularly among men, remains a significant barrier to men engaging with support services for their mental health. Despite increasing evidence of interventions targeting different aspects of stigma reduction, there is a notable gap in the literature concerning male-specific mental health stigma reduction interventions and on the underlying behavior change techniques (BCTs) used to reduce stigma. The purpose of …
Workplace Interventions Targeting Mental Health Literacy, Stigma, Help-Seeking, and Help-Offering in Male-Dominated Industries
Mental ill-health and suicide represent a significant proportion of the burden of global disease among men. Connell’s relational theory of masculinities provides a useful framework to explore how mental health literacy, mental health stigma, and delayed help-seeking and help-offering behaviors are associated with mental ill-health among men, particularly within male-dominated industries. To address the high incidences of mental ill-health in male…
Prevalence and associated risk factors for suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempt among male construction workers in Ireland
Suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempt are significant issues for male construction workers that require specific attention. Findings highlight a need to support younger male construction workers and those bereaved by suicide. They also highlight the need for the early detection and treatment of generalized anxiety disorder and depression in order to intervene in, and potentially prevent, suicidality among male constructi…
Men’s mental health and the arts
Arts engagement is gaining recognition as a non-clinical approach to promote mental health and well-being. However, the perceived utility of the arts to promote mental health among men with low socioeconomic status (SES) and how to best engage them is underexplored. This study explores the lived experiences of men with low SES who engage with the arts in Northern Ireland (n = 41). Data collected via focus groups (n = 5) and interviews (n = 11) we…
Using an Intersectional Approach to Explore the Lived Mental Health Experiences of Traveller Men Affected by Suicide in Ireland
Rates of suicide are seven times higher among Traveller men, an Indigenous ethnic minority group in Ireland, compared with non-Traveller men. Several factors are implicated, including racism, social exclusion, discrimination, inadequate accommodation, unemployment, and lower educational attainment. Systemic and cultural barriers inhibit Traveller men from seeking support. This study addresses a gap in the literature by exploring the lived mental …
Mental health, societal expectations and changes to the governance of farming
Contemporary EU agricultural policies place a significant emphasis on current and future societal issues, e.g. climate, biodiversity, animal welfare, and air and water quality amongst others. The governance of farming practices has changed in order to deliver on these expectations resulting in increasingly specific regulations to ensure their delivery. For male farmers these developments have the potential to undermine their autonomy as a 'good f…
‘Sheds for Life’
Research has highlighted the importance of gendered approaches to engage men with health. Sheds for Life (SFL) is a health and wellbeing initiative that utilizes evidence-based and gender-specific approaches to engage hard to reach men with health promotion directly in the Men’s Sheds (Sheds) setting. To understand the impact of SFL and how participants (Shedders) experienced SFL in practice, this qualitative study applied a framework of construc…
An Economic Evaluation of ‘Sheds for Life’
Men's Sheds ('Sheds') attract a diverse cohort of men and, as such, have been identified as spaces with the potential to engage marginalized subpopulations with more structured health promotion. 'Sheds for Life' is a 10-week men's health initiative for Sheds in Ireland and the first structured health promotion initiative formally evaluated in Sheds. Cost is an important implementation outcome in the evaluation of Sheds for Life when operating in …
Sheds for life
This study has been retrospectively registered with the 'International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number' registry (ISRCTN79921361) as of 05/03/2021
“That’s Me I am the Farmer of the Land”
Compared to other occupational groups, farmers in Ireland experience a disproportionate burden of health problems, which impact farmers’ livelihoods and farming sustainability. Internationally, farmers’ poor health outcomes are associated with intersecting economic, environmental, socio-cultural, and occupation-specific factors linked to changes in agricultural governance. This qualitative study explored the challenges and stressors facing farmer…
Study protocol
This study has been retrospectively registered with the 'International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number' registry ( ISRCTN79921361 ) as of the 5th of March 2021
Men’s health in alternative spaces
Men often struggle to find or gain access to meaningful health services. Despite, or because of this trend, men are increasingly seeking out alternative sources of support for their wellbeing. Global health conversations and policies are calling for a greater awareness of men's heath issues, uptake of gender-sensitive strategies and integration of community and voluntary sectors. Men's Sheds, which are community and volunteer-run spaces for men, …
A process evaluation of a Training of Trainers (TOT) model of men’s health training
This study set out to identify the mediators of diffusion of a Training of Trainers (ToT) programme; focusing on ENGAGE, Ireland's national men's health training programme, we explored the process (planning, implementation and maintenance) of using a ToT model of training to affect change in gender sensitive health and social service provision for men. Our findings indicate that an experiential learning approach in combination with mechanisms for…
From training to practice
Ireland's National Men's Health Policy recommended developing training programmes tailored to the needs of those working in health and allied health professionals and ENGAGE was developed to meet that recommendation. This study evaluated the impact of ENGAGE on frontline service providers' self-reported knowledge, skills, capacity and practice up to 5-months post training. Between 2012 and 2015, ENGAGE Trainers (n = 57) delivered 62 1-day trainin…
The "buck" stops with me' - reconciling men's lay conceptualisations of responsibility for health with men's health policy
Contemporary health policy increasingly positions responsibility for the management of health with the individual which reflects newer neo-liberal discourses of health. Such an approach can be seen as problematic in the context of men’s health, with men tending to be seen as largely ‘irresponsible’ towards their own health. This paper addresses this question by drawing on qualitative data on how men conceptualise responsibility for health. Whilst…
The men's health policy contexts in Australia, the UK and Ireland
The state of men's health, internationally, is a deep public health concern. Despite pressure from the World Health Organisation that all health policy should consider the specific needs of both men and women through their push for ‘gender mainstreaming’, and increased interest in men's health, there have been relatively few gendered policy responses relating to men's health. In this article, we compare the men's health policy contexts in Austral…
The "buck" stops with me' - reconciling men's lay conceptualisations of responsibility for health with men's health policy
Contemporary health policy increasingly positions responsibility for the management of health with the individual which reflects newer neo-liberal discourses of health. Such an approach can be seen as problematic in the context of men’s health, with men tending to be seen as largely ‘irresponsible’ towards their own health. This paper addresses this question by drawing on qualitative data on how men conceptualise responsibility for health. Whilst…
Mental health, societal expectations and changes to the governance of farming
Contemporary EU agricultural policies place a significant emphasis on current and future societal issues, e.g. climate, biodiversity, animal welfare, and air and water quality amongst others. The governance of farming practices has changed in order to deliver on these expectations resulting in increasingly specific regulations to ensure their delivery. For male farmers these developments have the potential to undermine their autonomy as a 'good f…
The men's health policy contexts in Australia, the UK and Ireland
The state of men's health, internationally, is a deep public health concern. Despite pressure from the World Health Organisation that all health policy should consider the specific needs of both men and women through their push for ‘gender mainstreaming’, and increased interest in men's health, there have been relatively few gendered policy responses relating to men's health. In this article, we compare the men's health policy contexts in Austral…
The "buck" stops with me' - reconciling men's lay conceptualisations of responsibility for health with men's health policy
Contemporary health policy increasingly positions responsibility for the management of health with the individual which reflects newer neo-liberal discourses of health. Such an approach can be seen as problematic in the context of men’s health, with men tending to be seen as largely ‘irresponsible’ towards their own health. This paper addresses this question by drawing on qualitative data on how men conceptualise responsibility for health. Whilst…
A process evaluation of a Training of Trainers (TOT) model of men’s health training
This study set out to identify the mediators of diffusion of a Training of Trainers (ToT) programme; focusing on ENGAGE, Ireland's national men's health training programme, we explored the process (planning, implementation and maintenance) of using a ToT model of training to affect change in gender sensitive health and social service provision for men. Our findings indicate that an experiential learning approach in combination with mechanisms for…
From training to practice
Ireland's National Men's Health Policy recommended developing training programmes tailored to the needs of those working in health and allied health professionals and ENGAGE was developed to meet that recommendation. This study evaluated the impact of ENGAGE on frontline service providers' self-reported knowledge, skills, capacity and practice up to 5-months post training. Between 2012 and 2015, ENGAGE Trainers (n = 57) delivered 62 1-day trainin…
Men’s health in alternative spaces
Men often struggle to find or gain access to meaningful health services. Despite, or because of this trend, men are increasingly seeking out alternative sources of support for their wellbeing. Global health conversations and policies are calling for a greater awareness of men's heath issues, uptake of gender-sensitive strategies and integration of community and voluntary sectors. Men's Sheds, which are community and volunteer-run spaces for men, …
“That’s Me I am the Farmer of the Land”
Compared to other occupational groups, farmers in Ireland experience a disproportionate burden of health problems, which impact farmers’ livelihoods and farming sustainability. Internationally, farmers’ poor health outcomes are associated with intersecting economic, environmental, socio-cultural, and occupation-specific factors linked to changes in agricultural governance. This qualitative study explored the challenges and stressors facing farmer…
Study protocol
This study has been retrospectively registered with the 'International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number' registry ( ISRCTN79921361 ) as of the 5th of March 2021
‘Sheds for Life’
Research has highlighted the importance of gendered approaches to engage men with health. Sheds for Life (SFL) is a health and wellbeing initiative that utilizes evidence-based and gender-specific approaches to engage hard to reach men with health promotion directly in the Men’s Sheds (Sheds) setting. To understand the impact of SFL and how participants (Shedders) experienced SFL in practice, this qualitative study applied a framework of construc…
An Economic Evaluation of ‘Sheds for Life’
Men's Sheds ('Sheds') attract a diverse cohort of men and, as such, have been identified as spaces with the potential to engage marginalized subpopulations with more structured health promotion. 'Sheds for Life' is a 10-week men's health initiative for Sheds in Ireland and the first structured health promotion initiative formally evaluated in Sheds. Cost is an important implementation outcome in the evaluation of Sheds for Life when operating in …
Sheds for life
This study has been retrospectively registered with the 'International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number' registry (ISRCTN79921361) as of 05/03/2021
Men’s mental health and the arts
Arts engagement is gaining recognition as a non-clinical approach to promote mental health and well-being. However, the perceived utility of the arts to promote mental health among men with low socioeconomic status (SES) and how to best engage them is underexplored. This study explores the lived experiences of men with low SES who engage with the arts in Northern Ireland (n = 41). Data collected via focus groups (n = 5) and interviews (n = 11) we…
Using an Intersectional Approach to Explore the Lived Mental Health Experiences of Traveller Men Affected by Suicide in Ireland
Rates of suicide are seven times higher among Traveller men, an Indigenous ethnic minority group in Ireland, compared with non-Traveller men. Several factors are implicated, including racism, social exclusion, discrimination, inadequate accommodation, unemployment, and lower educational attainment. Systemic and cultural barriers inhibit Traveller men from seeking support. This study addresses a gap in the literature by exploring the lived mental …
Mental health, societal expectations and changes to the governance of farming
Contemporary EU agricultural policies place a significant emphasis on current and future societal issues, e.g. climate, biodiversity, animal welfare, and air and water quality amongst others. The governance of farming practices has changed in order to deliver on these expectations resulting in increasingly specific regulations to ensure their delivery. For male farmers these developments have the potential to undermine their autonomy as a 'good f…
Mental Health Stigma Reduction Interventions Among Men
Stigma surrounding mental health, particularly among men, remains a significant barrier to men engaging with support services for their mental health. Despite increasing evidence of interventions targeting different aspects of stigma reduction, there is a notable gap in the literature concerning male-specific mental health stigma reduction interventions and on the underlying behavior change techniques (BCTs) used to reduce stigma. The purpose of …
Workplace Interventions Targeting Mental Health Literacy, Stigma, Help-Seeking, and Help-Offering in Male-Dominated Industries
Mental ill-health and suicide represent a significant proportion of the burden of global disease among men. Connell’s relational theory of masculinities provides a useful framework to explore how mental health literacy, mental health stigma, and delayed help-seeking and help-offering behaviors are associated with mental ill-health among men, particularly within male-dominated industries. To address the high incidences of mental ill-health in male…
Prevalence and associated risk factors for suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempt among male construction workers in Ireland
Suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempt are significant issues for male construction workers that require specific attention. Findings highlight a need to support younger male construction workers and those bereaved by suicide. They also highlight the need for the early detection and treatment of generalized anxiety disorder and depression in order to intervene in, and potentially prevent, suicidality among male constructi…
Factors influencing the mental health help-seeking behaviours of construction workers in Ireland
Men in the construction industry are at a higher risk for suicidality when compared to the general male population. While industry-specific challenges such as excessive working hours and a pressurized work environment are contributory factors, deeply embedded masculine norms within the industry can further exacerbate this risk by discouraging mental health disclosure and help-seeking. Against this backdrop, managers occupy a pivotal position to p…
Suicide literacy, suicide stigma, and help-seeking attitudes among men in a university setting in Ireland
This study sought to explore the relationship between sociodemographic-, mental health-, knowledge-, attitudinal-, and conformity to masculine norms variables with suicide literacy, suicide stigma, and help-seeking attitudes among men in a university setting (n = 471) in Ireland. Multiple linear regression with backward elimination was used to determine the independent variables associated with suicide literacy, suicide stigma, and help-seeking a…
Effectiveness of a process-based approach to farmer wellbeing
Among farmers, mental health and suicide are noted concerns in the literature. Practical barriers, stigma and shame may impede engagement with support. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy offers a means of providing support to those experiencing mental health concerns. An evaluation of a six-session, online, individually facilitated intervention with six Irish farmers (age 39-69 years) was completed using a randomized, concurrent, multiple-baseline…
You Have to Make It Normal, That’s What We Do”
Men have a higher risk of suicide compared to women, with those in male-dominated industries such as construction being particularly vulnerable. These industries are typically characterised as 'macho' environments, endorsing traditional masculine norms that reinforce mental health stigma and delay help-seeking. The workplace is a promising setting for engaging men with issues around their mental health. Although managers can play a key role by co…
The Development of the Cairde General Awareness Training
Suicide is a leading cause of death among construction workers, particularly younger and lower-skilled employees. Barriers such as stigma, low mental health literacy, and traditional masculine norms hinder help-seeking in this male-dominated sector. Few mental health interventions are tailored to this context. This study developed a co-designed, theory-informed training to improve mental health literacy, reduce stigma, and increase help-seeking a…
Capturing the wider benefits from football participation
The computed SROI ratios for a single site and for ten sites compare favourably with those of other health initiatives particularly other football and community based SROI evaluations. Furthermore, this study quantifies the benefits of football participation from a mental health and social perspective in addition to physical benefits, and it also highlights the benefits of football participation to other stakeholders such as participants' family …
Football cooperative
Across the western world, men tend to have lower life expectancy compared to women and have higher mortality rates for most of the leading causes of deaths at all ages. While biological factors such as genetics and hormones may seem to contribute to men’s heightened vulnerability to certain diseases and health conditions, these elements alone do not fully explain the significant disparities observed in health outcomes between men and women. To ad…
Health follows football
Men carrying the greatest burden of preventable ill health are among the least likely to be reached by conventional health promotion. Football-based initiatives have demonstrated capacity to engage such men, yet the cultural mechanisms through which sustained engagement and health outcomes are achieved remain poorly understood. This paper explores how football culture and the organizational culture of the Football Cooperative (FC) initiative, an …
Medicine (13 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Mental health (8 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Nursing (7 works) · Focus group (6 works) · Public health (6 works) · Qualitative research (6 works)