Bringing people bowling or taking them to a restaurant might seem like an easy job, but this is far from the whole picture. Catherine Foley reports

John Brennan recently spent a morning at a bowling alley. He and his four companions spent an hour whiling away the bright winter's morning.

Then they walked back up the hill to St John of God's Hospital in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, where the four people in his company are currently staying.

Sometimes Brennan, who is an occupational therapist at the hospital, will take one or two of the residents on a visit to a restaurant. Sometimes they go to the pictures or to the local FÁS information centre.

"You are providing them with chances to become part of society again," he says. The work is intense.

"Usually how they feel about themselves is pretty poor. They feel they are not capable. They are depressed." His clients include people suffering form depression, anxiety and other conditions.

The aim of the social outings is to help the clients "look at their lives" and also "to affirm their abilities". His role is not that of a mother or a teacher. He acts as a mirror, he says.

"You are trying to mirror back to the person what they are saying about themselves," he says.

In his job, he has to be patient, empathetic, energetic, resourceful and eventful, he says. He has to be "able to look at a problem and think laterally as well. I have to be a problem-solver, and I have to be persuasive."

The job is "quite rewarding", he says, "particularly when someone is going out the door who has linked in with the community at home". Part of his job is helping to develop a network and help establish those connections in the local community.

"One has to have strong inter-personal skills, be able to motivate a person and listen actively - figure out exactly what that person is saying to you and exactly what that person wants."

Brennan has a caseload of about 15 people, including those who need intense attention. Some are there with acute mental-health problems and some are there for very short periods. People at the hospital are "from all over the country". Those with the more serious illnesses stay "for that little bit longer".

He might visit one person twice in the one day, he says. He might be focusing on "trying to encourage someone to get out of bed and have a shower", he says.

It is an intense, challenging job, but, he cautions: "You have to know how to take care of yourself, particularly when you start first."

The main purpose of the social outings is "hopefully to provide an opportunity for an enjoyable experience", he says.

Brennan grew up in Boyle, Co Roscommon. After his Leaving Cert at St Mary's College in 1997, he went to Trinity College Dublin to study for a degree in occupational therapy.

Part of the course involves "looking at yourself and looking at your values and your openness and how that would effect your work. It's about reflection. It's problem-based learning." By third and fourth year, students begin to build up the 1,000 hours of clinical experience. Brennan spent one term in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire. His next placement was in the Central Remedial Clinic in Clontarf and in final year he was in the mental health unit in St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin. "You write down your aims and goals for that place and your supervisor helps you achieve those. It's very much a learning curve," he says.