All Ireland Traveller Health Study Our Geels - Department of Health ...

Health Survey Findings
Northern Ireland
Similar challenges for Travellers in terms of premature mortality have been noted in NI as in ROI.
According to ‘Investing for Health’ (Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, 2002),
Travellers die about 15 years earlier than the general population in NI. Only 1 in 10 of the Traveller
Population is over 40 years of age and 1 in 100 is over 65. Child mortality up to age 10 has been found
to be 10 times that of the population as a whole.
The Royal Hospitals Group in Belfast commissioned research (McMahon, 2005) into a health assessment
and needs of Travellers in Belfast. The DHSSPS also supports a community health project with An Munia
Tober in Belfast. In 1999 a new ‘Targeting Social Needs’ policy initiative in Northern Ireland contained
a specific theme of PSI, and a PSI Working Group on Travellers was created. In 2000 an initial PSI
report was published (Office of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, 2000). The Executive in
Northern Ireland produced a response to the PSI Working Group on Health in 2002 (Office of the First
Minister and the Deputy First Minister, 2002), which contained a number of recommendations aimed at
improving the health and wellbeing of Travellers.
Why Primary Health Care?
Primary Health Care has been used as an innovative approach to health care in the developing world. In
the last decade there has been a growing interest in and demand for these services, as evidence grows
that marginalised populations suffer disproportionately from poor health and have less access to health
care services.
The concept of Primary Health Care was established at the joint WHO/UNICEF conference in Alma-Ata
in 1978. It acknowledged the need to reform the conventional health systems. Health was seen as the
concern of society as a whole.
‘Primary Health Care (PHC) is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially
acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the
community, through their full participation and at a cost that the community and the country can afford to
maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination. It is the first
level of contact of individuals, the family and community with the national system, bringing health care as
close as possible to where people live and work, and constitutes the first element of a continuing health care
process’
Alma Ata Declaration 1978
Primary Health Care is a statement of health philosophy, not a package, or a complete defined
methodology. It is a flexible system that can be adapted to the health problems, culture, way of life
and the stage of development reached by the community. Primary Health Care in communities means
enabling individuals and organisations to improve health through informed health care, self-help and
mutual aid. It encourages and supports local initiatives for health.
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