Traveller Mental Health Initiative
The Traveller Mental Health Initiative (TMHI) programme was funded by the Health Services Executive via the Dormant Accounts Fund and was developed to:
- Improve mental health outcomes for Travellers and reduce suicide
- Maintain and promote positive mental health and wellbeing
- Improve Traveller access to mainstream health services
A total of €460,000 was awarded across seven projects, the projects funded are listed below:
- Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre -Traveller Mental Health Community Development Worker and Mental Health Advocacy Worker
- Donegal Traveller Project - Pilot Programme for Mental Health
- Limerick Youth Service - Traveller Youth Advisory Group across five hubs in the Mid West
- Meath Travellers Workshop CYWS - Programme of work including horse care, women’s wellbeing, men’s wellbeing, access to mental health services and professional support
- Smashing Times Theatre Company - “Acting for the future”- using arts to promote positive mental health and suicide prevention
- Galway Traveller Movement - Traveller led community and youth resilience programme
The provision of an independent evaluation was an agreed requirement as a condition of the Dormant Accounts Funding for the programme.
S3 Solutions Ltd was appointed by the National Social Inclusion Office in November 2019 to carry out the evaluation.
The S3 TMHI Evaluation and S3 TMHI Executive Summary demonstrate the scale of Traveller mental health as an issue across the country and shows that the involvement of Travellers in the design and delivery of projects is critical to success with high levels of participation and engagement at a local level.
The report further identifies the positive impacts as well as the lessons for improvement in providing Traveller Mental Health interventions.
The NSIO extends sincere thanks to all the projects and participants for their commitment to developing and running these projects.