1. Snapshot: Health and care in the Gypsy community
Snapshot: People living with HIV and sexual health conditions
We visited a Gypsy trailer site to talk to residents in their own trailers about their experiences of local health and care. Our outreach work seeks to raise awareness of Healthwatch Surrey services, but can also identify potential inequalities and the causes of them. This helps us to shape and challenge services.
We raised awareness of Healthwatch Surrey’s role amongst 3 multi-generational families
People expressed a need for written and verbal communication between health professionals and patients to be better
People expressed that they did not self- ascribe as Gypsies for fear of discrimination from professionals
Communication between professionals and Gypsies
“You’ll ask the receptionist to explain the notice to you in plain English and they’ll ask you stand aside and wait for someone to explain it to you. It can be embarrassing for people who can’t read, so they don’t ask for the help and they just don’t get that message”
“Some Gypsies will sit there and nod and say thank you but they haven’t a clue what the Doctor is actually telling them”
Mental Health
“The thing is that in other families[…] their health gets so bad that they kill themselves because they can’t see a way out. I’ve seen it happen so many times in our community and it’s sickening because if someone could say to them to[…]get help they might not reach that point”
“Mental health is a big problem with Gypsies because the men and women can’t talk to each other about what’s going on”
“Men need to work for themselves and when there’s no business it puts a lot of pressure on them and makes them worried”
Discrimination from professionals
“Other gypsies say that as soon as a doctor or a specialist knows that you’re a Gypsy, they don’t want to know you anymore and they won’t carry on the care” “We don’t need to tell them we’re Gypsies- how does that affect my heart?”