My Working Day: Mary McGrath, Western regional executive with Aware, organises education seminars, suicide intervention courses, and trains and recruits people for the support service
My role involves the development of Aware's services throughout the west of Ireland. Aware is a voluntary organisation formed in 1985 by a group of interested patients, relatives and mental health professionals, whose aims are to assist that section of the population directly affected by depression.
I organise depression awareness and education seminars for all members of the community, including delivery of Aware's Beat the Blues secondary schools awareness programme.
I am involved in the delivery of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) courses to both community and professional groups. I also recruit and train facilitators for our support group network in the west.
The promotion and advertising of Aware's services and supports, especially with other organisations and groups, is another important part of my role along with participation in, and organisation of, public lectures on depression and suicide awareness.
My office hours are officially 9am to 5pm. Many talks and meetings take place outside these hours though, and sometimes I have to run training courses at weekends.
No two days are the same in this job, but generally my mornings involve visiting a school in the region to deliver our Beat the Blues secondary schools awareness programme. I work with schools throughout counties Limerick, North Tipperary, Clare, Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.
It is an extremely important part of Aware's work - young people too are at risk of depression and crisis, and the programme encourages them to be more open with their peers and to seek available support if they are concerned for themselves, a family member or a friend. The feedback from the schools is always very positive.
My afternoons vary, but often involve meetings with other organisations and forging links with other interested groups. I often present information sessions to groups working with individuals who are recovering from mental ill-health, to inform them of the support services available.
I try to visit the support groups in my region regularly too, so many evenings are spent travelling to the different groups. It all keeps me busy.
The most difficult aspect of my job is probably the travel - the region I am responsible for covers five and a half counties so it involves many early-morning starts and late finishes.
I wouldn't say that any part of my work is particularly easy, but it is definitely a very satisfying job. Knowing that the work that I do and the amazing work done by our many volunteers has helped someone to understand more about their depression, or has helped somebody who is suicidal, is hugely rewarding.
On a personal day-to-day level, a helicopter would make my job much more straightforward. On a serious note, the area of mental health is very under-funded and under-resourced in this country, and always has been. More funding and much-needed improvements in the mental health services would greatly enhance many people's lives.
As Aware is 80 per cent funded by the public, it means our resources are quite stretched, so an increase in funds would help in order to allow us further develop our nationwide services too.