By Norma Deasy, Communications Manager, National Screening Service
On International Traveller and Roma Day, Kathryn Meade, Senior Health Promotion Officer with the National Screening Service, and Bridgie Collins and Nancy Collins, who work with the Traveller Primary Healthcare Project at Pavee Point, tell us about their work to address health inequalities and improve health literacy among Travellers in relation to eye screening for those living with diabetes.
Travellers have a disproportionate burden of chronic diseases such as diabetes. The All Ireland Traveller Health Study (AITHS), 2010 found that the rate of Travellers living with diabetes was double that of the general population.
Nancy Collins and Bridgie Collins are part of a team of 16 Traveller Community Health Workers bridging the gap between mainstream services and Traveller families on the ground. A core part of this work is to signpost and provide health advocacy, including information on eye screening, to Travellers living with diabetes.
Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes. It’s an eye disease that affects the small blood vessels at the back of the eye. When retinopathy is found early, treatment can reduce or prevent damage to a person’s eyesight.
We offer eye screening to everyone living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes age 12 years and over. Diabetic RetinaScreen is free of charge and if treatment is needed, this is also free.
Nancy says, “A lot of people don’t know that diabetes is a very serious condition if you don’t mind yourself, and it can be especially serious to your eyes. Our work on improving accessibility to diabetic eye screening is because of the trust and relationships that we as Traveller Community Health Workers have with our community. Without those connections they wouldn’t go. We’ve built up trust with people over 30 years. It’s not just about telling people what they should do. It’s more about supporting people where they are at and providing culturally appropriate information on how to lead a very good life while living with diabetes. It’s also to highlight gaps within the services and work with them to address these issues in partnership with Travellers.”
Research has highlighted the importance of these projects, with the vast majority of Travellers (83% to 86%) accessing health information from a local Traveller organisation or Traveller Primary Health Care Project (AITHS; HSE 2021).
Bridgie adds that it is important that she “spreads the news about eye screening” to Traveller families she works with. “We sit down and have a chat and I ask them to go for their eye screening when it’s due.”
A key part of Kathryn Meade’s work as Senior Health Promotion Officer with the National Screening Service, is to hear from Traveller Primary Healthcare Workers on how best to work together to promote screening. Working in partnership with the Traveller Primary Health Care Project, she says word-of-mouth is a great way to spread information on eye screening.
“Traveller Community Health Workers have the expertise and knowledge of the best ways to communicate information on the ground to Travellers. Through workshops, we co-designed and developed key messages and the health workers disseminate the information on eye screening for Travellers living with diabetes through their work in their own community.
“We offer information in many formats to try and make the information more accessible to everyone because we all take in information in different ways. Some people prefer reading Easy Reads, others prefer to look at the images in our picture stories, while others like to watch and learn from videos.”
- Diabetic RetinaScreen is for everyone with type 1 or type 2 diabetes aged 12 years and over. You can register online. Your GP or healthcare professional can also register you.
- We answer your questions about Diabetic RetinaScreen.
- We’ve developed a 15-minute eLearning resource about diabetic retina screening for health and social care staff.