Technical Report - Donegal Traveller's Project

Health Survey FindingsPerceptions of Health and Health Services by the Traveller Community in theGreater Belfast Area (2005)This study involved finding out perceptions of the Irish Traveller community of their health needs, theirperception and experience of health services in general and the Royal Hospitals in particular.Most Travellers believe they suffer poor health and attribute this to three main factors: lack ofappropriate accommodation, discrimination and racism they experience and poor health behaviours.Most Travellers believe that improvements in their health status will come with opportunities toparticipate in employment and social activity, coupled with a programme of Traveller specificaccommodation and a reduction in the discrimination and prejudice they face. Travellers recognisethat improved access to health services over recent years has created some positive change in theirlives today. The first piece of research commissioned by a statutory agency on the condition of Travellerhealth in Northern Ireland took place in 1993 and covered the Eastern Health and Social Services area(Ginnety, 1993). This employed an ethnographical approach that sought to discover the views peoplehold about their social world and attempted to elicit the naturally occurring health knowledge thatis used by Travellers themselves. A total of 55 Travellers participated in indepth interviews. The reportconcluded that poor environmental conditions and poor access to existing health and social serviceswere major influences on Traveller health. It also highlighted the need to involve Travellers in decisionmaking.Since 1987, no national studies have been conducted on Traveller health in ROI, but research carriedout in recent years suggests that the health status of Travellers may not have improved. This reviewdoes not seek to cover these various studies, many of which have methodological limitations, includingsmall numbers, difficulty in identifying Travellers and lack of generalisability of findings. Some indicativeexamples only are included.The Irish Sudden Infant Death Association (ISIDA) found in their Annual Report of 1999 that the rate ofSudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) among Travellers was 12 times greater than the rate among thesettled population (Irish Sudden Infant Death Association, 1999).In 2000, a study on Travellers attending the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght in south-westDublin (Traveller Health Unit in the Eastern Region, 2000), found that while over a third of the hospital’sgeneral population patients were in the over 65 year age group, compared with 11% of generalpopulation aged over 65 years (Central Statistics Office, 2003b), just 2% of Traveller patients were agedover 65 years, compared with 3% of Traveller patients aged over 65 years (Central Statistics Office,2003b).19