Inequality in Health Care and the Experiences of Women From the Irish Traveller Community

Abstract

Objective: To explore the health care experiences of women from the Irish Traveller community, which is an indigenous ethnic minority group in Ireland and Great Britain.

Design: A descriptive qualitative methodology underpinned by naturalistic inquiry was adopted.

Setting: Halting sites where the participating Traveller women permanently reside.

Participants: The sample consisted of 24 women from the Traveller community in Ireland.

Intervention/measurement: Data were collected via two focus group interviews using semi-structured interviews. Inductive content analysis was used to analyze the data.

Results: Three overarching themes emerged: Conceptualizing What It Means to Be in Receipt of Health Care; Respecting Ethnic Customs Around Death and Dying; and Strategies for Enhancing Cultural Competence. Women from the Traveller community experienced many challenges when requiring health care services. Some recalled a health care environment that lacked compassion and was discriminatory toward them. A lack of dignity and privacy afforded to women during the "passing" of a loved one was an important finding in this study.

Conclusion: Strategies to improve Traveller women's access to and engagement with health services are urgently required. These include cultural awareness training for health care providers and visual aids for Travellers accessing health services.

Keywords: Inequality; Irish; Traveller; Travelling community; primary care; qualitative research methodology; women’s health.