Annual Report 2024 highlights continued progress in delivering high-quality, rights-based mental healthcare

St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS) has published its Annual Report 2024, detailing a year of service delivery, advocacy, education, and innovation in line with our strategic plan, The Future in Mind.

In 2024, we continued to support thousands of people in their mental health recovery, while progressing key priorities under our five-year strategy.

2024 highlights

In 2024, we:

• provided inpatient care to 2,321 service users
• delivered Homecare to 884 service users
• facilitated 16,572 appointments through our Dean Clinics
• recorded 18,720 attendances across our day programmes.

We also enhanced access to care through digital innovation. A total of 3,195 service users registered for Your Portal by the end of 2024, our secure online platform for accessing personal health records.

Developing our services and infrastructure

We progressed the first phase of transforming our historic Dublin 8 campus into a national centre for mentally healthy living. This began with repair and conservation works to the original building, and the development of an interactive education centre promoting mental health awareness will follow.

At the same time, we continued exploratory work on a potential new hospital campus in Lucan, with consultations planned in 2025 to inform future development.

Other service developments included:

• the full launch of the nursing Homecare Hub
• closure of the 33-bed Grattan ward to transfer capacity into Homecare
• expansion of digital assessment tools across our care pathways.

Maintaining standards and advancing research

We achieved high compliance in all three of our Mental Health Commission-approved centres:

• 100% compliance at Willow Grove Adolescent Unit for the fifth consecutive year
• 97% compliance at both St Patrick’s University Hospital and St Patrick’s Hospital, Lucan

In 2024, we also developed SPIRE, Ireland’s first online mental health research repository. Our teams published 31 peer-reviewed papers, delivered 10 national and international presentations, and initiated three new multidisciplinary research projects.

Advocacy, education, and service user involvement

We contributed to 16 consultations and advocacy submissions, including engagements with the World Health Organization and Irish Government departments. Topics ranged from climate and mental health to child and adolescent mental health standards.

We also hosted 18 mental health promotion events, delivered four GP webinars, and delivered our Transition Year Programmes.

Service user engagement continued to shape our work. In 2024:

• 1,135 service users provided feedback on their care and treatment via our service user experience surveys 11 meetings of the Service Users and Supporters (SUAS) Council were held
• 11 meetings of the Service Users and Supporters Council (SUAS) were held
• we co-developed new digital projects with our Remote Care User Advisory Forum.

Reflecting on the year and on the launch of the 2024 report, Paul Gilligan, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Our Annual Report always offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on the progress and achievements of the past year – celebrating our strengths while also identifying areas for growth. As we continue to honour our mission and vision, we remain focused on delivering a mental health service that harnesses the power of technology and responds to the evolving challenges of our time.

"In 2025, SPMHS is strongly positioned to further implement our strategic plan, The Future in Mind. This strategy enables us to advance our core goals: delivering the highest quality human rights-based care; partnering with service users; advancing research; raising awareness of mental health; advocating for the rights of those experiencing mental health difficulties; and supporting staff and organisations working in mental health through training.”