Singer helps launch documentary on Travellers’ mental health awareness

Singer Kelly Mongan recalled Ireland’s suicide rate among Travellers when she helped launch a DVD aimed at heightening awareness of mental health within her community.

The 19-year-old, runner-up in The Voice TV programme, travelled from her home in Fermoy, Co Cork, to Sligo to help the Bishop of Elphin Dr Christopher Jones launch the DVD, The Journey of Mental Health.

It was developed by Sligo Traveller Support Group and the HSE.

It aims to raise awareness of how several social problems, including discrimination and prejudice, have a negative impact on mental health.

Organisers at the launch said Travellers experience poorer mental health and a suicide rate six times higher than the majority of the population.

Four teenage Travellers — three girls and the boyfriend of one — took their own lives across Ireland within the past week.

Kelly said: “That is a really shocking figure. Nobody knows why they did it. It could have been discrimination but it could also have been for many other reasons.”

She recalled that in the past a distant relative on her mother’s side took their own life.

She added: “I can’t say why it happened, but I have heard of two Traveller girls in England that took their lives because of discrimination.”

DVD project manager Bernadette Maughan said at the Sligo launch: “A main contributor to the increased suicide figures is the high levels of prejudice, discrimination and racism experienced by the Traveller community in Ireland.

“We are hoping to bring down the level of prejudice and discrimination and that people will start to see one another as individuals rather than as ‘you are the Traveller and I am settled’.

“The DVD, which has been in the making for 18 months, highlights areas within the mental services relevant most individuals within Irish society.

“It’s aim is to simplify what the services are all about so they can be accessed on an equal basis by Travellers.”