My Working Day

Helen McCormack works as a community health promotion officer with the East Coast Area Health Board

I arrive into my office in Dún Laoghaire between 9 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. There is no typical day. Some days, I am out all day and other days I have meetings and time in the office to catch up on reports, phone calls and planning activities.

One aspect of my work is to give 'Being Well' courses which run for eight weeks. So I might spend a morning in Bray, Co Wicklow giving a session of such a course to the Women's Equality in Bray group. This is a group of women over 45 who have come together for education, training and support. We usually start the session at 10 a.m. with stretching and breathing exercises. Then we discuss a topic, for example, physical activity. We look at how each woman uses her day and what opportunities there are to increase her level of physical activity. We also break into small groups to discuss each person's needs in more detail and then feedback to the main group. Sometimes, questions arise about complementary/alternative medicine and, because I am trained as a medical herbalist, I feel confident to give advice in this area.

The session lasts for about two and a half hours. It's quite intensive but I really enjoy the group interaction and I feel energised after the morning's work. Sometimes, there are opportunities to suggest input from other members of the health promotion team such as the community dietician, the workplace health promotion officer and the smoking cessation officer.

On days when I am out of the office, I grab a quick lunch and then head off to another meeting. As the only community health promotion officer with the East Coast Area Health Board, I also have to visit projects such as the Arklow Healthy town project. So I may spend the afternoon there. Once there, I meet members of the community and the co-ordinator of the project. The emphasis of the project is to encourage people to actively improve their own health and create a healthier social environment in the town. We've a range of activities with these aims in mind. At the moment, we are designing a programme of activities to encourage young people to take more physical activity. Together with Youthreach, soccer clubs and the family support centre, we are organising swimming, football and hill walking programmes.

This meeting normally lasts about two hours and if I've time, I drop back into the office to check emails and any other correspondence. Overall, the work is about empowering people and it's wonderful to see people move on, advance their skills and knowledge and having a role in this is very rewarding.

(Interview by Sylvia Thompson)