Inside Primal Instinct UK: How a brotherhood is changing men's mental health

Three-quarters of all suicides in the UK are men. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among men under 50.

In November 2024, the UK government finally released its first ever Men's Health Strategy, acknowledging what community organisations have known for years: men face unique barriers to seeking mental health support, including cultural stigmas and distrust of traditional services.

Primal Instinct UK is one of the organisations that didn't wait for government strategy. They built something that works.

The model

Primal Instinct UK isn't a clinical service. It's a brotherhood.

The core activities include:

• Cold water therapy — River dips and sea swims that create shared challenge and physiological reset
• The Wrekin challenges — Regular hikes up Telford's iconic hill
• Talking circles — Spaces where men can speak without judgment
• Primal Audio — Audio resources for members to access between sessions
• Primal Juniors — Youth mentorship program
• Dad's Lifeline — Crisis support specifically for fathers

The numbers speak for themselves: 200+ active members, 1,000+ hours of peer support delivered, and a BBC Make a Difference Award nomination.

Why it works

The Men's Health Strategy identifies several barriers that prevent men from seeking support: stigma around asking for help, lack of awareness of services, distrust of clinical environments, and services that don't meet men where they are.

Primal Instinct UK addresses each of these:

Stigma reduction through activity. You're not coming to "therapy"—you're coming for a river dip or a hike. The mental health support happens alongside something physical and practical. This matches what research shows: men often prefer to open up during activities rather than in face-to-face conversation.

Community over clinical. ManHealth, ANDYSMANCLUB, and similar organisations have shown that peer support groups—where men support each other rather than receiving professional treatment—can be remarkably effective. Primal Instinct follows this model.

Meeting men where they are. Not a waiting room. Not a clinical office. A river. A hillside. A space that feels like belonging, not treatment.

Ongoing connection. Unlike episodic clinical encounters, brotherhood creates sustained relationships. Members aren't patients—they're brothers who show up for each other week after week.

The technology layer

When we partnered with Primal Instinct UK to build their digital platform, the brief wasn't "digitise what you do." It was "extend the brotherhood to places you can't physically reach."

The platform includes:

• Community forums where members can connect between sessions
• Event coordination for dips, hikes, and gatherings
• Check-in tools that let members signal when they're struggling
• Primal Audio for guided resources accessible anytime
• Signposting to crisis resources when needed

The technology doesn't replace the in-person connection. It extends it. Members who can't make a session still feel connected. Those who are struggling between events have somewhere to turn.

What we learned

Building this platform taught us several things that inform all our mental health work:

Community first, technology second. The platform is only as valuable as the community it serves. We didn't build features and hope people would use them—we understood what the brotherhood needed and built to support it.

Safety without clinical coldness. The platform needed crisis detection and resource signposting, but it couldn't feel clinical. Men who are already hesitant about "mental health services" would disengage from anything that felt like therapy software.

Peer support is real support. There's sometimes snobbery about non-clinical interventions. But the research is clear: peer support works. And for populations who won't access clinical services, peer support may be the only support they'll accept.

Sustainability matters. Volunteer-run organisations burn out without infrastructure. The platform helps distribute the load, making the brotherhood sustainable rather than dependent on a few individuals' heroic effort.

The broader context

England's Men's Health Strategy includes partnership with the Premier League's Together Against Suicide initiative and £3.6 million investment in suicide prevention projects targeting middle-aged men.

But government action is slow, and community organisations like Primal Instinct UK, ANDYSMANCLUB, ManHealth, and others are doing the work right now.

In 2024, ManHealth alone supported over 5,100 men and provided over 10,200 hours of free peer support. ANDYSMANCLUB runs free support groups every Monday evening across the UK.

These organisations prove that effective mental health support doesn't require clinical budgets. It requires community, consistency, and spaces where men can show up as themselves.

What's next

Primal Instinct UK continues to grow. The Primal Juniors program is bringing the model to younger men. Dad's Lifeline is expanding support for fathers specifically.

And the platform continues to evolve, informed by what members actually need rather than what we assume they should want.

This is what community-led mental health infrastructure looks like. Not waiting for government. Not replicating clinical models that don't work. Building something that actually helps men show up, speak up, and support each other.

Primal Instinct UK proves that when systems fail people, communities can build something better. We're proud to support their work.