This report presents findings from the ninth national psychiatric census of patients in psychiatric units and hospitals, the latest in a series of censuses first carried out in 1963. The census is a count of all patients resident in psychiatric units and hospitals operating within the provisions of the Mental Health Act 2001, (Government of Ireland, 2001), at midnight on 31 March 2016. Data for this report are based on residents in 64 units and hospitals on the Register of Approved Centres under the Mental Health Act 2001, including child and adolescent units.

Eighty-four per cent of those with a diagnosis of intellectual disability had been in hospital for five years or more on census night. In contrast, 28% of those with schizophrenia, 19% of those with organic mental disorders, 19% of those with alcoholic disorders, 7% of those with depressive disorders and 12% of those with mania had been in hospital for five years or more on census night.