St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS) was delighted to host our annual Founder’s Day conference on Friday, 22 November 2024.
Founder’s Day is our flagship yearly event, held to coincide with the birthday of our founder, Jonathan Swift, and explores a different mental health theme each year. It brings together national and international researchers, clinicians, service users and more, and, as a major event in the Continuing Professional Development calendar in Ireland, is of particular relevance and interest to academics, healthcare professionals and clinicians.
The theme of our 2024 conference focused on older adult mental health, aiming to share expert knowledge in this area and to create open dialogue on important issues such as proactive planning for mental health in later life, strategies to promote positive aging, and advocacy for older adults. You can watch the conference back further below.
The conference was recognised for four Continuous Professional Development (CPD) points from the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI), 3.5 CPD points from the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), and four CPD points from the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP).
Speakers
Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter, Ken Laidlaw, was the keynote speaker of this event.
Other speakers joining us included:
- Dr Brian Lawlor, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry and Site Director of Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin
- Helen Rochford Brennan, international dementia ambassador and a member of the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPWD)
- Dr Robert Briggs, Researcher on The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) and Consultant Geriatrician in St James's Hospital
- Mary Murphy, Policy Analyst, Age Action Ireland
- Helen Fitzgerald, Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Sage Advocacy.
As part of our Founder's Day 2024 celebrations, we were also delighted to present a practical skills-building and information session for older adults and their supporters. This event took place in-person in St Patrick's University Hospital on Monday, 18 November: see more on the in-person Founder's Day session here.
See more in the conference programme
See more on older adult mental health
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Founder’s Day: Practical skills building and information session for older adults