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Traveller community’s life issues
 WHILE
on the subject of sad statistics I saw another report that dealt with
the issue of life expectancy amongst members of the Travelling community.
Apparently seven-in-10 die before the age of 59 and one-in-10 children
die before the age of two.
Heart attacks and strokes generally affect the older population but it
seems that Travellers are not affected to the same extent as the settled
community by such problems because the simple truth is they don’t
live long enough to develop these illnesses.
The figure for deaths of people under 25 in the Travelling community is
32 per cent which is outrageous when compared with the figure for the
rest of the population at just 2.6 per cent.
Road deaths and suicides also contribute to the high mortality rate.
I recognise that it must be almost impossible to compile totally accurate
figures for anything that involves the Travelling community just by virtue
of the fact that a lot of them do move around and they have an in-built
distrust of officialdom.
The only hope of combating these problems involving Travellers is the
education of the younger generation and this in itself is a problem because
of their traditions and culture.
Perhaps the highlighting of the health issues will make people more sympathetic
and less judgmental when it come to the plight of Travellers and it might
even help Travellers to realise that not everyone is against them.
There is help available to them and there are people willing to provide
it if they are given the opportunity. |
