Macro Level Work Case Study

Introduction

As the broadest and largest-scale of interventions, macro level work ultimately aims to change society, social policies, and other issues that affect large populations. Macro level work plays a major role in combatting the issue of gender differences in help-seeking behavior attributing to the higher suicide rate in males. How macro work can address this problem will be discussed through identifying the specific problem, discussing helpful theories, understanding the system that needs changing as well as understanding the client-system needs, determining stakeholders, selecting and evaluating proper interventions, and other macro-level considerations such as skill sets, values, and ethical considerations.

Problem Identification

In this case, the system in need of change is the cultural expectations of masculinity that contribute to men not seeking help for their mental health concerns. Research has shown that these perceptions are a problem. A meta-analysis conducted by Nam and colleagues (2010) found that gender is an important variable related to attitudes toward seeking formal help, showing female students hold more positive attitudes than their male counterparts in all racial groups. They explained that the internalizing of societal expectations that men should be tough and emotionally inexpressive can have detrimental effects on a man’s attitude toward seeking mental health services, and that stigma also plays a role through male students’ fearing what others might think of them for being in therapy and how they would think about themselves. Essentially, this meta-analysis showed that the major barrier to men receiving mental health services was societal perceptions and how they were being

In the example above, men were prioritized as the most important member of the client system, so it would be imperative to get their feedback. This could be done by conducting a randomized survey on the community, state, or national level, depending on what the target location is and what a budget allows for. Questions contained in this survey could ask what current perceptions of help-seeking are, what the participant is currently doing to address their mental health needs, how the participant feels they are managing their mental health needs, and what changes they feel need to happen in order make them feel more comfortable getting help for mental health concerns. This could also be accomplished through doing a focus group from the target population as well, and in some ways, this approach may provide more informative feedback because discussions can be had instead of simple answers on a