Undertaking Critical Awareness-Raising Work

We continued to raise awareness of mental health issues across all forms of media in 2018, including guest blog posts, radio interviews, and television appearances. 15 press releases and statements were issued, resulting in 89 television and radio appearances by SPMHS staff, as well as over 250 articles published, both in print and online.

We operate four distinct mailing lists for the general public, General Practitioner (GP), Health Service Executive (HSE) business managers and one for the Walk in My Shoes. eNewsletters are issued on a quarterly basis to each mailing list, with content tailored to each audience. Sixteen eNewsletters were issued during 2018 with the open rate and click-through rates remaining considerably higher than industry standards.

We run two websites, one encompassing SPMHS as a whole, and the other specifically for our flagship education and awareness-raising campaign, Walk in My Shoes. The redeveloped SPMHS website went live on 12 February 2018, and attracted almost 170,000 visitors throughout the year. Twenty blogs and five podcasts were shared on the SPMHS website. A further thirteen blogs and three podcasts were made available on the Walk in My Shoes website, which hosted close to 45,000 users during the year.

We utilise a range of social media platforms under the SPMHS and Walk in My Shoes brands, including Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. These accrued significant growth and engagement in 2018: for instance, the SPMHS Twitter account gained almost 556,000 impressions and grew by over 13% to 6,485 followers in 2018, while the Walk in My Shoes Facebook page generated a 10% increase in its number of fans also. Furthermore, we run SPMHS accounts on Instagram and LinkedIn, which strengthened their followings by 28% and 50% respectively.

As always, our staff were called on to offer their experience, education and insights at a wide range of external events. In 2018, SPMHS staff delivered over 50 external presentations to schools, conferences, and corporates.