Training on Traveller bias effective but wanes over time
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The benefits of anti-bias training for health workers dealing with Travellers has a "shelf life" of six months and needs to be embedded in public and voluntary services, according to new research.
The launch of the research heard few Travellers are seeking help from health and other public services because of attitudes and beliefs of frontline staff and the impact of a lifetime of “trauma” caused by discrimination and racism.
The study involved training with 16 people working in non-Traveller projects in Cork and Kerry.
The Cork Traveller Visibility Group’s (TVG) Traveller Specific Drug & Alcohol Project and Cork City Partnership’s Community Outreach Drug & Alcohol Awareness Project jointly coordinated the project.
The research was conducted by Gabriella Fattibene, an MA psychology graduate of UCC, supervised by Dr Sharon Lambert of the college's Applied Psychology department.
Co-coordinator Ann Jordan of TVG, who worked with Mella Magee of Cork City Partnership, said the idea behind the project was to “build capacity” in non-Traveller projects.
Dr Lambert said the experience of Traveller women interviewed was that, from when they were very young, they were “othered”: treated different and negatively compared to everyone else.
She said the anti-bias training had benefits for the trainees but that the old attitudes and beliefs “crept back up after six months”.
She said, like CPR training, the benefits evaporates over time.
“This research showed that it does work, but then things start to slip, so it has to be embedded in the organisation, just like health and safety,” she said.
Breda O’Donoghue, director of advocacy at TVG, said: “This research underlines the importance of building trust through relationship work.”
Travellers interviewed highlighted basic things like being treated with respect and dignity, starting with a “good morning or hello”.
Ms O’Donoghue said: “People need to wake up and smell the roses. There’s a major blockage in the system that is prohibiting Travellers using the system.”
She said Traveller people are fearful of how they will be treated, and of stigma.
Ms O’Donoghue said there was a “complete ignorance” of how people on the margins of society live and the “racism and discrimination they face every single day”.
She urged organisations to link in with Traveller groups, so they can send the message out to Travellers “this service you can trust”.