Suicide among the Travelling community - a silent killer

In Ireland, for many years there has been a social stigma attached to suicide. Speaking about suicide has been a taboo for the Irish, particularly for men, for too long. The notion of opening up and speaking about feelings and emotions has always been suppressed. Showing that you are feeling sad or troubled is a sign of weakness for many Irish men, and it is not seen as the appropriate way to carry yourself. Thankfully times are changing.

Irish society is going through a transition. Ireland is moving away from being a theocratic state and developing into a modern, multi-cultural nation. Equality is the agenda of the current state. And through this, avenues have opened up for people to feel comfortable talking about depression. There are numerous suicide related charities that have been set up within the last ten years such as Console, Samaritans, Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland (YSPI), and Suicide or Survive (SOS). These charities all deal with suicide for a specific group. Along with these charities, Crosscare is a social care agency which has been running since 1941 which also deals in detail with suicide, and in particular suicide among the Travelling community. 

Crosscare has expanded their work within the travelling community recently by setting up the National Traveller Suicide Awareness Project. This is a community development approach to the issue of Traveller Suicide. The project works nationally with Travellers and Traveller organisations to support and provide resources for their work on developing responses to the issue of Traveller suicide. This organisation has done colossal work since its inception in 2011. Its initiative ‘safeTALK’ is a half day suicide alertness training programme. It prepares participants to identify people with suicidal thoughts and connect them to suicide first aid resources. 

No single reason can be attributed to the cause of suicide. There are a plethora of reasons for a catalyst for suicide. A broad range of reasons for Traveller suicides have emerged recently such as troubled suicides, motiveless, bereavement, violence, and shamed suicides. The most common form of suicide among the Travelling community is bereavement suicide. What is of major concern is that in 40% of cases where a Traveller took his/her life following the death of somebody close, that death itself was also a suicide. It seems to be a cyclical problem with no clear solution. 

Between 2006 - 2012, the average rate of suicide among Travellers was 3.7 per 10,000 people. This is three times more than the average rate of suicide of the total population of Ireland during the same period of time, which was 1.2 per 10,000 people. The most frequent method of suicide used is hanging, which accounts for almost 57% of all suicides within this time frame. 80% of Travellers who have died by suicide used this means of death. Members of the Travelling community have spoken out against the Government for not implementing policies to combat this rampant problem.

It seems the anger of the Travelling community is justified. Before Fine Gael came to power in 2011 they outlined in their manifesto that: “we will increase funding for the National Office for Suicide Prevention to €10 million to reduce the incidence of suicide and self-harm”. As of now, the Chair of the Director at the National Office for Suicide Prevention remains unfilled. Petra Daly, director of the National Traveller Suicide Project, said these statistics were “horrifying”. 

The Travelling Counselling Service has called on the Government to ring fence 5% of the mental health budget to ensure measures to tackle suicide are implemented in a culturally sensitive way. Brigid Quilligan, director of the Irish Traveller Movement, said that the high suicide rate among Travellers can be linked to hatred in Irish society. Last Thursday, at a Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence, and Equality, Ms Quilligan said that: “some of the hate towards us is because we are seen as deviants, villains, and a subculture - people who won’t conform or participate in society”. 

She went on to say that: “we’ve been devalued within society. Never before in my lifetime, have I seen such hate as I’ve seen in the last five years.” The Travelling community feel ousted and segregated from society. There are an estimated 30,000 Travellers in Ireland and the recognition of the Travelling community as an ethnic group is vital to their survival. There is an urgent need to begin to deal with, and understand, the reality of suicide and mental health issues on a national basis and how they affect minority groups. 

Travellers believe they cannot discuss their feelings in case it shows a weakness, while those forced into settled accommodation complain of feeling “boxed in”, according to Ms Quilligan. It is no surprise that suicide is predominately a male issue as they are seen as the provider in a Traveller family. For the total population of Ireland, male suicide is four times as common as female suicides. Within the Travelling community, the male suicide rate is 91%, over nine times as common as a female. 

However, there is no overnight cure to suicide. If those more vulnerable to suicide are those who lack self-esteem and experience cultural anomie then the Travelling community must promote their cultural identity. But this can only be done when the unprecedented hatred towards Travellers is eradicated. Futures need to be formed for the current crop of Traveller children, whether they choose to retain a separate identity or to integrate. The challenge for service providers is to encourage them and give them dignity and a purpose in life, while at the same time avoiding isolating Travellers from their community.

For an approach towards suicide prevention to be successful, it must involve building on the strengths within the Traveller community; strengths such as strong family and kinship ties, religious beliefs, and a high tolerance for troubled members. These strengths must be developed in order to protect high-risk individuals against suicide. Travellers need to be informed of the incidence of suicide and areas of risk, and given the necessary supports, so that they can be involved in the delivery of suicide prevention strategies. And when this is implemented, then the Travelling community can come to terms with combating the silent killer of suicide. 

S.DAWSON 30/04/13