Brian Howard
Chief executive of the Mental Health Association of Ireland
Causes of stress
Because this is a voluntary organisation, a lot of our volunteers can't meet until after working hours, so I have to configure my working life accordingly. It might mean travelling to meet people but, fortunately, we are assisted by 14 regional-development officers, and I interface with them as often as possible. But I do have to travel, so there is a little bit of potential for stress.
Normally, how I deal with things is to plan everything ahead. This really bears out the findings in our recent study of stress, which showed that Irish people tend to deal with it by planning and setting goals. I try to plan seeing people a few weeks in advance. But things do happen, as in any work situation, without any sort of notice.
I'm a northsider - I live in Clontarf. Because I work in D·n Laoghaire, I should be a model DART user, but any time I use it I find that I am called out of the offices to meet someone, and it's difficult enough to get a DART. It's even difficult to get a taxi here in D·n Laoghaire, so I'm afraid I add to the traffic on the road.
I'm rigged up to do a certain amount of work at home, although I try to do it as little as possible. Because of the nature of the work, if I'm travelling to meet someone first thing in the morning, I'll often have to bring some work home with me.
Coping with stress
I'm married to Gaye and we have two young girls, Susan (12) and Sophie (10). I'm very lucky that my wife works at home, so this relieves me of a lot of pressure. She collects the girls from school and from all their extra-curricular activities, which is a great support for me.
At the weekend, the way I relieve stress is, as the clichΘ goes, fishing, fishing and more fishing. If I'm not fishing, I'm either reading about it or tying flies. I can be found anywhere from Donegal to Wexford. A lot of the time I go by myself; I find I'm my own best company.
It's not really about the fishing - a lot of people will tell you that catching fish is a bonus. It's great to be away somewhere with no mobile phones. It's about getting away from the everyday pressures of life and getting time to yourself, I think. There is a physical aspect, because I cover a lot of ground and I can walk for miles. I love the outdoors. I love all sports, too, but I'm not a great fan of TV, except for news.
Planning
Dealing with stress is all about the planning - that's how I handle it. I plan my fishing year six months in advance. I like work, but I think the secret of a stress-free life is to sit down and plan so you don't feel isolated.
Things do happen unexpectedly, but you have to have a mechanism for dealing with that.
I'm two years here as chief executive of the Mental Health Association of Ireland, and before that I worked with the Department of Health and Children, developing mental-health services and drafting mental-health legislation. I came in at a time when we were in the throes of preparing a new five-year strategy, and it gave me the opportunity to visit a lot of our volunteers around the country.
We have 100 local organisations, so we're fairly large, and it's good to get to know the people on the ground personally.
In conversation with Elaine Edwards