Men Do Talk 2025: A Wake-Up Call
According to Men Do Talk 2025, a new landmark study by Mentoring Men, Australian men are speaking — we just need to learn how to listen.
Released this week and based on in-depth survey responses from more than 2,000 men aged 35 to 50 across New South Wales, Victoria, and the ACT, the report lifts the lid on men’s mental health in Australia and what’s getting in the way of meaningful support.
The numbers are confronting:
- 53% of men meet the criteria for loneliness.
- 50% experience daily stress or anxiety.
- 66% say they’d consider having a mentor — but most have never been asked.
Men Do Talk 2025 challenges the harmful stereotype that men are unwilling to open up. What the research shows is far more nuanced — men will talk when the conditions are right.
“This isn’t just a report,” said one of the project leads. “It’s a wake-up call.”
When Support Is Offered, Men Respond
A key insight from the study is the untapped potential of mentoring. Two-thirds of respondents expressed openness to having a mentor, but most of these men had never been invited to consider one. That gap between willingness and opportunity is where meaningful change could begin. “The greatest barrier is not willingness, it’s awareness,” state the authors.
Of the 2000 participants:
- 33% of men want practical info on where/when/how they could connect with a mentor.
- 30% asked for information about available mentors.
- 29% said confidentiality assurance was important.
- 28% want a mentor who was down to earth.
- 28% wanted ‘good listeners’.
- Only 17% wanted a mentor who was ‘action-orientated’.
“If you take nothing else from this report, let it be this: men are ready. We’re not unreachable or unwilling. We’re quietly searching for connection and more of us than you might think are open to it,” writes Mentoring Men Chief Executive Officer, Filipe Gama e Silva.
“I rally against the notion that ‘men don’t see help,’ he says. “For too long, this narrative has dominated the conversation. While it may have reflected past realities, it no longer serves us today.”
“The size and strength of this data makes it clear, the need is widespread, and the willingness is real. When support is easy to find and free of stigma, we men show up. We lean in.”
The findings from Men Do Talk 2025 carry a clear call to action: listen to what men are telling us. They’re saying, “we’re not broken or unwilling, we’re here, ready to talk, if someone’s willing to hear us out.”
The full Men Do Talk 2025 report offers recommendations for how communities, workplaces, and governments can do better — by encouraging mentoring, reducing stigma, and training people to know how to listen when men do speak up.
You can read the full report and learn how to support the movement at:
mentoringmen.org.au/reports
About the research
Mentoring Men engaged Censuswide to conduct the research with 2000 men aged 35-50 living in NSW, Victoria and the ACT. The online survey ran from 20 February to 10 March 2025.