Health Traveller health is significantly worse than the health of those in the settled community. As Travellers are a distinct cultural group with different perceptions of health, disease and health care needs they require special consideration in the health service. Settled men have a life expectancy of 75years . Traveller men have a life expectancy of 65 years.
Travellers have higher death rates for all causes of death among the settled community.
In a 5 year period, for every settled child that died of a cot death . 10 Traveller children died of a cot death. In 1995, the Traveller Task Force Report recommended that a National and Regional structure be devised to facilitate Traveller participation in the health service. Today, there is a National Traveller Health Advisory Committee at the Department of Health. Their first priority is to publish a National Traveller Health Strategy, due out before December 2000.