During 2013 and 2014, a research group at York, Manchester, Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian Universities conducted a systematic review of the qualitative research relating to men’s experiences of self-management support. in order to identify the key elements that make self-management support appealing and accessible to men with LTCs.

This ‘How To’ guide takes the findings from theYork review and condenses them into a practical guide for those people designing, delivering, or commissioning self-management support services.

The guide explores some of the challenges and evidence for what type of self-management support appeals to men. It identifies and explores five core themes that support better engagement of men in self-management:

• Taking account of men’s identities
• Identifying and offering a clear benefit with a tangible result
• Building and maintaining a trusted environment
• Getting value from peer support
• Education, information, and becoming an expert

It goes on to set out a series of tips for how to engage men, and briefly touches on the challenges of data collection and evaluation, as well as providing some suggested further reading.