21st Century

The turn of the millennium brought new challenges for Santa Casa. To meet them, the institution invested in areas such as urban regeneration — to make the most of its vast real estate portfolio — and the promotion of active ageing, through an intergenerational policy running across all its areas of work, supporting a large number of older service users while engaging young people in those same responses.

The need to modernise operating processes and intervention methodologies — to keep pace with new social realities and counter their harmful effects — was the basis for the drafting of the new Statutes of Misericórdia de Lisboa, approved by Decree-Law No. 235/2008 of 3 December.

The year was marked by the launch of the new brand and commercial identity of Santa Casa’s Games Department, under the name “Jogos Santa Casa”. In addition, with a view to increasing the revenue from the social games and the distribution to its beneficiaries, Santa Casa’s Games Department launched, jointly with other countries, its most eye-catching game: EuroMillions.

The new Statutes of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa are approved, setting out the legal framework for the institution’s activity and its main aims and missions, with a particular focus on social action, health, education, culture and the promotion of the well-being and quality of life of Lisbon’s population.

Continuing its commitment and strategy in the area of health, the institution inaugurated in 2012 the Maria José Nogueira Pinto Health Unit, dedicated to continuing and palliative care.

Aiming to recognise those who, despite their advanced age, remain active and engaged in Portuguese society, the Portuguese Association of Psychogerontology — in partnership with Misericórdia de Lisboa and Fundação Montepio — established the Dr Maria Raquel Ribeiro Award, recognising people aged 80 or over who continue to make a valuable contribution to Portugal.

In 2013, for the first time in its history, SCML began investing directly in world-class scientific and medical research, through the creation of the largest grants for Neuroscience projects developed in Portugal. This gave rise to the Santa Casa Neuroscience Awards, representing an annual investment of €400,000, divided across two awards: the Melo e Castro Award and the Mantero Belard Award.

With the aim of helping the country’s other Misericórdias to promote priority and innovative social causes and to restore historical heritage that is so often pushed to one side, Santa Casa and the Portuguese Union of Misericórdias joined forces in 2015 to launch the Queen D. Leonor Fund.

On 9 September, PLACARD is launched — the first territory-based sports betting game.

With shared interests and aims, Santa Casa became a partner of the Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva (FRESS). The aim of this partnership was to secure funding for the continuation of FRESS’s activities, the delivery of conservation and restoration projects on Santa Casa’s heritage, the integration of young trainees in work placements and in FRESS courses, and support for the development of innovative projects, among others.

M1LHÃO is launched (with its first draw on 30 September), along with the Jogos Santa Casa mobile app.

Strengthening its commitment to Research and Development, the João Lobo Antunes Award was created, worth €40,000. Aimed at medical graduates in their residency, it seeks to foster scientific culture and clinical research in the field of neurosciences, in keeping with João Lobo Antunes’ principle of humanising the medical act – “their patients and their stories”.

To support innovative solutions for social and environmental problems and needs — in line with the values upheld by the institution and in support of a more caring and sustainable society — Santa Casa launched, on 1 October 2018, Casa do Impacto.

Casa do Impacto aims to bring together, in a single physical space, all the players in the ecosystem of social entrepreneurship and social innovation — from entrepreneurs to third-sector institutions, universities, companies, acceleration programmes, investors, philanthropists and local authorities — so that all these actors can work together to create projects with social impact.

In February, Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, Lisbon City Council, the city’s parish councils, the Public Security Police and the Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo launched the pioneering programme “Lisbon, City of All Ages”. The programme’s mission is to provide an integrated response for the 65+ population in the field of longevity, supporting participatory citizenship initiatives that promote higher levels of autonomy and independence. The work of Santa Casa and other partners on the RADAR Project is particularly noteworthy: in just under a year, it geo-mapped some 30,000 older adults living in Lisbon’s 24 parishes, with the aim of understanding their living conditions, their needs and the responses they required to live independent, comfortable lives.

In August of that year, SOL – Saúde Oral em Lisboa (Oral Health in Lisbon) was inaugurated, a paediatric dentistry service — Santa Casa’s first specialist paediatric dental medicine service — free of charge and intended for all children resident or studying in Lisbon, aged 0 up to 18.

The year ended with the launch in November of the Santa Casa Longevity Awards, reinforcing the institution’s commitment to the “Lisbon, City of All Ages” programme. Awarded every two years, these prizes distribute a total of €300,000 to the scientific research projects best responding to each of the programme’s strategic pillars: the active life pillar, the autonomous life pillar and the assisted life pillar.

In 2020, working for good causes made even more sense. Amid a public health crisis, Santa Casa stepped up its work across the most diverse areas in order to continue supporting those most in need. The Covid-19 pandemic heightened the fragilities of certain sectors and led to an increase in the number of people in vulnerable situations, with more citizens seeking help from Misericórdia de Lisboa.

At a time when everyone had to stay at home, Misericórdia de Lisboa was home to thousands of Portuguese, scaling up its frontline responses. During the pandemic, it continued to support around 1,700 people, mostly older adults in social isolation. Geriatric and community support staff stayed on the ground to meet the needs of the service users relying on this service. Health units remained open to the public, with doctors and nurses ensuring healthcare provision. In permanent and assisted residences, service users received full support during the first lockdown declared in March 2020.

The 65+ population was heavily affected by Covid-19, with the pandemic increasing the number of older adults in isolation. To address this, Santa Casa expanded its work on the ground through the Radar Project, in order to listen to and respond to the problems of the capital’s older population.

And because the needs of care homes also had to be addressed, Santa Casa created — in partnership with ABC-Algarve Biomedical Center — the COVID Care Homes Line, providing support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in a project developed with the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security.

But Covid-19 also affected the emotional stability of Portuguese citizens, who, from one moment to the next, saw their lives constrained and their future jeopardised. Casa do Impacto — Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa’s social entrepreneurship hub — launched acalma.online in response to the impact of the pandemic on mental health. The free online psychological support platform proved a crucial support for the hundreds of people who used it.

The cultural sector was also placed in a “state of emergency” by Covid-19, which is why Santa Casa joined forces with three other entities to create the Culture Solidarity Fund — a measure designed to support cultural professionals whose livelihoods were jeopardised by the loss of income caused by the pandemic.

In the final quarter of the year, Misericórdia de Lisboa strengthened its work in the area of health. The Chelas Clinic was donated to the institution and the acquisition of the Red Cross Hospital was formalised.

Although the pandemic affected revenues from the sale of the State Social Games, with a drop of around 40% compared to 2019, Santa Casa began in 2020 to expand the network of Jogos Santa Casa agents across different parts of the country (mainland and islands). This expansion, completed in 2021, added 1,500 new agents — a robust contribution to the sustainability, revitalisation and stabilisation of the country’s social economy.

Still in the midst of the pandemic, 2021 proved to be a year of recovery on several fronts, with the need to add to Santa Casa’s traditional responses new ways of acting — innovative and even disruptive. As such, it was a year in which the institution committed itself to projects targeting the most vulnerable groups, with priorities including intervention in the areas of longevity, poverty, the employability of people with disabilities and integrated continuing care.

On 1 May, coinciding with Workers’ Day, Santa Casa launched Valor T – an employability agency dedicated to people with disabilities, set up with the aim of helping, supporting and assisting people with disabilities in building stable professional careers suited to their individual abilities, contributing to the transformation of their lives through employability.

After two years filled with great uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, 2022 looked set to be promising and challenging. Faced with a “new reality” and a world “turned on its head”, Santa Casa adapted and continued its more than five centuries of work “For Good Causes”, giving people back a reassuring sense of normality and a renewed commitment to support those most in need.

In a year marked by the start of the war in Ukraine and the enormous flow of refugees, the institution made itself available from the outset to create conditions for the integration of these people into Portuguese society.

Against the backdrop of World Youth Day 2023, the institution and Renascença established a partnership to reflect on the main problems and challenges faced by this audience. In this context, they also launched together the Grand Young Journalism Prize.

It was also a year in which the institution extended its work in the area of children and young people beyond the city of Lisbon. Following Vila Franca de Xira, Amadora and Mafra, it was the turn of Oeiras to host a Misericórdia de Lisboa response focused on the promotion of the rights and protection of children and young people.

Towards the end of the year, the institution increased its early childhood response capacity with the inauguration of the Desagravo nursery. The Bairro da Boavista Children’s Care Centre also reopened, after rehabilitation works.