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Family and community visits
Essential Practice Point 5
- A critically ill or dying Traveller is likely to have a number of visitors. Traveller representatives have indicated that it is important to ascertain who will represent the family in interactions with hospital staff. This will help in mediating between the needs of the healthcare setting and family visitation needs.
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- Some families may wish to bring the deceased home for a traditional wake (ritual surrounding the community viewing of the body in the home).
Death-related religious rituals
Essential Practice Point 6
The Catholic chaplain or, if preferred, the person's own priest should be called to administer the customary rituals preceding death.
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Cleaning and touching the body
The body may be washed by mortuary staff and dressed in clothes provided by the family.
Postmortem requirements
There are unlikely to be culturally specific objections to a postmortem.
Interment ritual
Travellers usually bury their loved ones and many prefer to be buried in the areas that families lived in and have an affinity with.
