Dr. Aileen Tierney:

I thank the joint committee for inviting me to speak to it. I welcome its establishment at what is a time of crisis for Travellers.

I come from the Clanwilliam Institute, which is a registered charity founded in 1982. We provide systemic family therapy services and train mental health professionals. Clanwilliam has been involved for 31 years in that provision. Our approach to therapy is embedded in reflexive practice, which creates problem-solving competencies for clients and fits with a community-centred approach, to build resilience. We provide a counselling service that is responsive and tailored to each client group’s specific needs. A significant part of our education and training is about taking into account the lived experience of our clients and the impact of their culture and how they perceive their world and their place in it. All our therapists are trained in cultural competency.

We are in partnership with the Traveller Counselling Service, which was launched in 2008 and has developed into a community-based counselling service led by Thomas McCann. This service works from a culturally inclusive framework. Clanwilliam and the Traveller Counselling Project have been in partnership in the provision of services to children and families and this collaboration is underpinned by the mutual shared interest of both our agencies in the provision of family therapy to marginalised groups and in particular to members of the Traveller community.

We need to begin to consider the position that any organisation such as Clanwilliam can hold in supporting positive mental health for Travellers. The voices of Travellers must be included in the planning and delivery of all mental health services. Drawing on the disability slogan, "nothing about us without us", Travellers must be included at every level of service delivery.

The Clanwilliam Institute's role is as an ally and a partner in consultation with the Traveller-led counselling service. If people do not see that people of their race, ethnicity, culture, class, sexual orientation and ability are widely represented in newspapers, on television or in all the structures in society, it is very difficult for them to hold a positive view of their own position as fully accepted members of society. As I began to meet the children, families and women from the Traveller community, I thought of myself as a culturally sensitive therapist. I somehow believed I had some knowledge of marginalisation and discrimination and its impact on people's lives. Having frequently experienced marginalisation as the parent of someone who lives with a disability label, I thought I might understand them a little. I falsely assumed, however, that I knew something about the possible experiences of others or, if I did not know, that I would be curious and sensitive enough to inquire about what I needed to understand of cultural beliefs and practices that might affect therapy conversations. Culture, however, does not reveal itself, it cannot be inquired about and it is not available to questioning. It is embedded in ways that are subtle and sometimes hidden. At times power occludes the possibility of our seeing our own capacity to oppress, not power as an expert stance or any therapeutic arrogance, but the power by virtue of being. The internalised history of being silent often meant that my clients from the Traveller community were not even able to let me know the times when I was misguided in my conversations. I had to rely on a heightened sensitivity to voice tone, posture and demeanour, always conscious that people who have experienced marginalisation can internalise expectations of what it means to be from that community, that is, an expectation not to be listened to or to pass expertise to members of the dominant community.

The most interesting feature of my responses was that I could easily oscillate between shame, sadness, outrage and a feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness in my work with the Traveller community. I felt shame at being settled and what my people and I do and have done to others and for not really understanding the lived experiences of others. A deep sense of sadness often pervaded my reflections on working with Traveller populations, which was related to the complexity of the difficulties at every level, from access to housing, health services, education to being a witness to the repetitive cycles of exclusion and the challenges in the next generation. There was sadness at the displacement of young men struggling to find their identity and the high suicide rates and I felt rage at discrimination. My sense of powerlessness came from my incapacity to support change, including the attitudinal change of other professionals in making judgments that did not always take culture into account. Sometimes I felt my own voice when working with Travellers was silenced within my profession. At times it seemed the issues were too complex to create sustainable change and the desire to be political as a therapist, to impact societal and structural changes and to begin to advocate at a political level, became more imperative.

Among the themes that emerged from my therapeutic work and that seem significant in forming any recommendations I might make was the idea that Travellers are often caught between two worlds, settled and Traveller, when trying to navigate systems and legislation that had not been set up with cultural sensitivity.

Childcare systems are often not created with cultural sensitivity. For example, there is a lack of relative foster care placements for Traveller children in our care systems. I refer also to addiction and a lack of services that are culturally inclusive, as well as GPs prescribing and over-medicating the Traveller population, particularly Traveller women. The risk of suicide is higher in marginalised populations and particularly among young men. We have been noticing Traveller mothers preparing their children to manage discrimination and note the need for the State to police the role of social workers and psychologists to receive and undertake cultural sensitivity training.