Scottish authorities had to intervene to keep deer numbers down at a Sutherland estate after the overpopulated animals damaged protected areas. Meanwhile, the landowner has received vast sums of public money.
A video showing a man playing bagpipes during a Muslim call to prayer was widely shared on social media this
A campaigner has made the first estimate of the total number of cleaner fish that have died while grazing lice on farmed salmon. It’s condemned as a “colossal waste of life” that should cease.
Our deaths by suicide rate is not coming down because we have too many poor people. They don’t have enough money, they can’t feed themselves, they don’t have any hope because they don’t know what’s coming down the road. ” Sean McCann, trauma psychotherapist
In part three of The Ferret investigates…the health gap – a three-part special podcast from The Ferret media co-op and Greater Govanhill magazine – we turn our attention to the mental wellbeing of young and middle aged men, another issue driving health inequalities in Scotland.
In Scotland, men in the most deprived areas have a life expectancy of almost 14 years less than those in the most affluent areas. Of the 753 people that completed suicide in 2021, three quarters were men.
In this episode we hear from James, a joiner from Glasgow, about his struggles with his mental health and Bill Hill of the Lighthouse charity tells us about the way the construction industry, which is currently losing two workers to suicide every day, has been forced to mobilise to save lives.
We also visit San Francisco’s Harm Reduction Therapy Center and find out how offering people struggling with substance use therapy on the street is dismantling the myth that some are hard to reach.
In the studio our hosts are joined by Linda Birnie of Mikey’s Line which offers suicide prevention and a helpline across the Highlands and was set up following the tragic death of two friends, Martin Shaw and Michael Williamson.
Other guests include Graeme Callander of We Are With You, a charity which works with people struggling with their mental health, or alcohol or substance use and psychotherapist Sean McCann, who also works for Strathclyde University.
You can find all three episodes of The Ferret investigates…the health gap on The Ferret or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts: Karin Goodwin, of The Ferret and Samar Jamal, of Greater Govanhill magazine
Interviews: Karin Goodwin
Production: Halina Rifai and Karin Goodwin
Episode editing and sound: Halina Rifai
Music: Loris S. Sarid
Package about the Harm Reduction Therapy Center
Reporting, sound recording and writing: Karin Goodwin
Editing and sound design: Flora Zajicek
Main image: sculpies/iStock
This article is part of our Mind the Health Gap project, funded by the European Journalism Centre, through the Solutions Journalism Accelerator – a fund supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Hundreds of protected areas are under pressure from Scotland’s massive deer herd. Most agree deer numbers must be controlled to protect the environment, but are split on what should be done.
Edinburgh University students were “interrogated” by police at their desks over posters featuring Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, prompting dozens to complain.
Unsafe levels of faecal bacteria were recorded at dozens of Scotland’s best beaches this summer. Swimmers and paddlers could be at risk, but officials insist water quality remains high.
Footage of farmed trout suffocating, haemorrhaging, and being beaten with batons in a slaughterhouse has prompted an official complaint to a government regulator.
