Eileen Flynn: "If the political will was there, this could be the Government that helps save Travellers’ lives"

As someone who still suffers today with anxiety, I know mental health is a real issue for many people – and a very real issue for members of the Traveller community.

We’ve all the statistics that we need. Although we do need to refresh those statistics, and find more up to date numbers, we also need action around services, and implementation.

There are so many factors behind it. You’re not being seen as an equal member of society – you’re being discriminated against, rejected, watched when going into a shop, targeted when collecting your children from school, and not able to get that job you put yourself forward for.

Obviously, it’s discrimination from the top down. Even recently, a city councillor in Galway basically said, “Give the house to a settled family – because Travellers and settled people don’t mix.” Where did he get that notion from? In my opinion, what he was saying is that one community matters more than another. There’s young people reading that, who look up to our politicians. And to see that level of ‘acceptable racism’ does have an impact on you.

It’s also down to not having accessible services. I’ve been to counsellors since I was 10 years of age. You have to go in and explain yourself – who you are, and what it means to be a Traveller, and everything else that goes into that. It can feel like they’re judging you. So why tell a stranger your problem, who’s not from your community? They can’t understand what it’s like to be a member of the Traveller community.

Like in the settled community, we have more Travellers today with drug addiction and alcohol addiction than ever. But our mental health services are trying to fix one problem, and not deal with the other. So what we’re also looking for is to have dual diagnosis services – where we’re able to work with young Traveller men and women who also have additional issues with addiction.

I’m not a counsellor, but it’s just common sense to work with both issues together – because the addiction is part of the mental health problem.

Protest outside Leinster House. Tuesday 31st of May 2022. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Since this Government’s been formed, we’ve all heard a lot about mental health – especially Traveller mental health – because it was in the programme of Government.

I’m going to be calling for another meeting with the Minister of State for Mental Health Mary Butler and the National Traveller Mental Health Network, to tease out issues about funding in the budget. We did meet with the Minister before the recess, and unfortunately she was determined that we would go underneath the National Mental Health Strategy – even though it says in the programme of Government that we would have our own standalone mental health strategy.

Again, the community is not being listened to. We could have all the money in the world but without real, meaningful engagement and implementation of the recommendations of the Committee on Key Issues Affecting the Traveller Community, then the funding is pointless.

The answers are there in the recommendations. It’s not about reinventing the wheel. We need a ring-fenced budget that will deal with Traveller-specific mental health inequalities.

One of the recommendations of the Traveller Committee, which I think is vital, is to support local Traveller organisations – and have a counsellor and services for mental health in each organisation, where it’s easy to access for Travellers.

The stigma is changing, to an extent. We’ve got more people-power on the ground, we’ve got more Traveller people who aren’t afraid to speak out, and we’ve got more Travellers who are activists for equality.

At the Traveller mental health protest in May, the numbers came out from organisations, from great Traveller activists, and from good Traveller allies as well – but I didn’t see many ordinary Travellers at that protest.

So I don’t think the stigma is gone, but I do believe we’re getting closer to breaking down the barriers – and we have broken down many of them as Traveller people. You have to give thanks to the likes of Tyson Fury, who’s openly speaking about his mental health. He’s a true role model to young Traveller men. And we’ve got other great Traveller men like Martin [Beanz] Ward, the comedian, and Oein DeBhairduin. We need as much of that as possible.

But if this was in the general population, we wouldn’t expect people to fix themselves, without proper services. And I think that’s what the Government really wants – without any real meaningful supports, to say, “They’re just the Travellers, they’ll fix themselves. They’ll be grand!”

Without the implementation of the recommendations, it’s very hard to have any hope, to see a way out. This time six months ago, I probably would have said, “We’ll keep pushing along.” But the more protests you go to, the less you feel that they actually give a damn.

In public they’re saying the right things. But yet they’re not listening to the community. If the Government was to listen, and implement at least some of the recommendations that we’re looking for, I do believe there could be some hope – because we’ll know that there’s services being put in place that will be able to give 100% support to young Travellers who are struggling with their mental health.

If the political will was there, this could be the Government that helps save Travellers’ lives, and be part of the solution for a better future for young Travellers – rather than be the part of the continuing problem. That’s something they really need to think about.

Some of the recommendations from the Joint Committee on Key Issues Affecting the Traveller Community:

– “Mandatory cultural awareness and anti-racism training should be rolled out across all State services that engage with the Traveller community”

– “A National Traveller Mental Health Strategy, as promised in the Programme for Government, should be implemented, with a ring-fenced budget”

– “The National Traveller Health Action Plan should be published as a matter of urgency”

– “Increased funding should be provided for the delivery of peer-led Traveller specific mental health supports through Traveller Primary Health Care Projects in local areas”

– “Traveller organisations should be resourced to develop new and effective community mental health programmes targeting specific groups (e.g., children, young people, older people, women, men, LGBTQI community members)” – “There should be a Cross Sectional approach to addressing the root causes of the mental health crisis in the Traveller community.”

Read the full recommendations here.

The Hot Press Mental Health Special continues in the current issue of Hot Press: