Men’s Health Week: Actively Making Space for Men in Family Health

Across HIV, maternal and child health services, health systems continue to see mothers as the sole primary point of care. Mothers are expected to attend clinic visits, remember appointments, manage treatments, ask questions, follow guidance and carry much of the emotional responsibility of care for children. 

While mothers are doing incredible work in their households, they should never have to carry this responsibility alone.  

Fathers, male partners and male caregivers are not temporary visitors in healthcare, they have an important role to play in protecting the health and wellbeing of children, mothers and families. When health services intentionally integrate men into clinic spaces, treatment conversations and prevention services, care becomes stronger and families are better able to make informed decisions together. This ensures that children grow up healthy, safe, and strong.  

Many of our current healthcare systems are still designed in ways that unintentionally leave men outside the care journey. Clinic processes, waiting areas, service messages and health records often focus almost entirely on mothers. This can make fathers and male caregivers feel like passive visitors, rather than recognised partners in family health. 

This #Mens HealthWeek2026, PATA's #CenteredInCare campaign is shifting the narrative by highlighting a systemic issue: Who is missing from family health? 

Our Call to Action: Moving from Words to Clinic Reality 

This is not a passive reminder that men matter. It is an active advocacy call targeted at health facilities, frontline healthcare providers, facility managers, and national programme design teams. We are calling for an intentional shift toward inclusive, gender-transformative health spaces. 

We challenge healthcare champions and facility heads to look at their services, ask themselves the questions below and implement structural changes: 

• Are we offering flexible, male-inclusive service windows or adjusted clinic hours so working fathers can attend? 
• Are our health records and service messages designed to track the whole family or are they still focused on the mother and child only? 
• Are our physical health facility spaces and clinical intake protocols visibly welcoming to male caregivers? 

Real change is driven from the frontline. When frontline health systems step up to integrate fathers and male caregivers as equal partners, they lighten the workload for overextended clinic staff, ease the burden on mothers, secure optimal care and treatment for children, and safeguard the future of the entire family. 

Join the Campaign: Share your health facility's family-inclusive practices or commit to making one practical layout or scheduling change in your facility this week. Let's build a health system that stands united in care!