Research shows that the club is making a real difference in its members’ lives, in a neighbourhood in which the average male lifespan is 15 years less than the average Canadian.

The members, two-thirds of whom are Indigenous, say that the club has helped them deal with their health issues as well as their challenges of loneliness, addiction, cultural isolation, and abuse. The club motto is simple: Leave your armour at the door. 

They share a hot meal, play bingo, get free haircuts — then they get real about their health, talking about everything from prostate cancer to sexual abuse, in sessions led by doctors and nurses.

It’s called DUDES Club, an acronym for Downtown Urban Knights Defending Equality and Solidarity.

But the 21 men who have come to the Eagle Valley Retreat in the picturesque Upper Squamish Valley aren’t here for corporate team-building or a fishing getaway.

These men are here to heal and grow.

Is it because men, to deal with their suffering, are more inclined to consume alcohol and other drugs?

Is it because men, who do the most dangerous jobs, are much more likely to be seriously injured at work and to take opioids to kill the pain?

Dr. Paul Gross is among those who want to get to the bottom of why 15 of the 60 regular members of Vancouver’s Dude’s Club have in the past year died of fentanyl and other opioid overdoses.

The club is a community outreach project of the Vancouver Native Health Society, in collaboration with the Movember-funded Men’s Depression and Suicide Network at UBC. According to its medical director and UBC clinical assistant professor Paul Gross, the appeal of the club is that it creates a safe, supportive place for men to talk about health, both physical and mental.

The lyrics to Ray Charles hit R&B tune “I Don’t Need no Doctor” are just as valid today as they were in the 60’s. Men do not like to go to the doctor.

While more than 11.5 million women had contact with a physician in the past year across Canada, the number of men who did so was considerably lower. According to a 1999-study published in the Journal of Family Practice, “men are less likely than women to actively seek medical care when they are ill, choosing instead to ‘tough it out’.”

The reasons for not being engaged with their own well-being vary, from men conforming to an expected social role of being strong, almost immune to any physical threat, to other barriers like having to disclose their vulnerabilities to a third person, or having difficulties keeping up with appointments.

In marginalized populations, the phenomenon worsens. That’s why the team that coordinates the Positive Outreach Program at Vancouver’s Native Health Society launched an initiative called Downtown Urban-knights Defending Equality and Solidarity.

The program, better known by its acronym Dude’s Club, tackles Downtown Eastside’s men’s health by approaching them in an informal setting.