“Beyond Bereavement”: the impact of unresolved grief on Gypsies and Travellers – implications for policy & practice Carol Rogers and Margaret Greenfields, Buckinghamshire New University A presentation at the BSA Death, Dying and Bereavement Symposium, November 2011

1. “Beyond Bereavement”: the impact of
unresolved grief on Gypsies and Travellers –
implications for policy and practice
Margaret Greenfields & Carol Rogers

2.  Gypsies and Travellers, Who are they?

3.  ‘the poorest life chances of any ethnic group in the
UK and face widespread discrimination’ ( Diacon 2007
:1)
 ‘Significantly poorer’ health than that of
comparative ethnic minorities and economically
disadvantaged groups (Parry et al 2004)
 Life expectancy of 10yrs ( men ) 12yrs ( women) less
than sedentary population (Cemlyn et al 2009)

4.  Suicide amongst Gypsies and Travellers is anecdotally very high in
Britain, particularly in prison populations. No clear statistical evidence.
(Cemlyn et al, 2009 ).
 Ireland 9% of all Traveller deaths over 10 year period. >50% suicide
victims married and aged 25-39. Cultural practices lead to assumption
of high number of bereaved children. (Brack & Monaghan, 2007)
 Substance Abuse (increasingly reports of drug related deaths amongst
Gypsy &Traveller populations (Cemlyn et al, 2009)
 Childhood Accidents/Illness (e.g. several deaths from Measles
outbreak – extended families in UK and Ireland (Greenfields 2009)

5.  29% of Gypsy and Traveller women had experienced
miscarriage in comparison to 16% of the sedentary
population ( Parry et al 2004)

 and 17% experience the premature death of a child in
relation to 0.9% of the sedentary population.(Parry et al
2004)

6. • she was two and I was turned away - only a second or two -
getting the baby out of the car seat – we lived on a lay-by – I
told her to stand still – just wait.. she was hit by a lorry
[interviewee breaks down in tears]
 “you never ever, ever , get over it”
 X lost his little girl too. His wife has died too. She was only
31 when she died... two little children he’s got”
 “I’m 36, I’ve lost two brothers [road accidents] a sister
[cancer], my Daddy [heart attack] and one of my children
[congenital illness] are gone before”

7.  Close-knit nature of Gypsy and Traveller culture, high birth rate and
pattern of extended family residence means that the death of an
individual is keenly felt as a loss by a large number of kin including
significant number of children.
 Bereavement and grief leading to high rates of long-term untreated
depression and anxiety can impact on family functioning (Van
Cleemput, 2007; Goward, et. al., 2006) exacerbated by lack of access to
services, limited cultural knowledge of surrounding sedentary
communities and casual racism
 bereaved parents stated that GPs overwhelming failed to offer
counselling after a death preferring to ‘fob them off with a handful of
pills’ (Richardson, et. al., 2007)
 .

8.  Its like X down there that lost his baby in a cot death they were on the
land for about 2 weeks and were invaded by police for 2 weeks and social
services and that pathetic lot. She’s never recovered and then of course
no quicker than the little child was buried, the baby’s belongings and
everything were burned in the caravan, the next day they were evicted
and of course that woman wasn’t there to get any care. She needed care,
she needed somebody, a woman doctor, to say its alright my baby,
everything is alright”.
 Impacts of frequent moving/insecure accommodation impacting on
access to bereavement services and long-term care
 Mother discharged from hospital 2 days after late miscarriage – evicted
from roadside site 48 hours later, given prescription for anti-
depressants – still taking them 10 years after event – no review of
medication known to have occurred. Eldest daughter 17 responsible for
household functioning and care of siblings [MG case files]
 “bereaved parents stated that GPs overwhelming failed to offer
counselling after a death preferring to ‘fob them off with a handful of
pills’ (Richardson, et. al., 2007)

9.  Women:
 ‘ What happens every so often is that you walk around normal and
another time it hits you like a ton of bricks. You see something on the
TV or hear some sort of song that the child liked and you think ‘oh my
god’ and it all comes back to you again and there’s no-one there you can
talk to because you hide it from your own children as well because
you’re grieving and you don’t want them grieving. You don’t want your
grandchildren grieving because their mums are grieving. So all that bit
of grief as far as I’m concerned the [senior] woman will hold that grief
to herself. Nine times out of T en that grief brings the illness and
sickness on. It brings the nightmares on, it brings the anxiety attacks on
 its hard, but you try to hide it, you not only try to hide it from your
children, but you try to hide it from your husband. So the grief that
you’re feeling you don’t want it on everyone else around you ’cos you
know what hurts you but you don’t want to hurt them’ ( Richardson et al
2007:114)

10.  Men:
‘the men carry on as the hard men of the family, they don’t grieve in front of
you at all, they don’t cry in front of you……..sometimes when it gets too much
they’ll walk around the field or go off somewhere. So men don’t like to be
seen crying. When [husband] lost the head of his family he went walkabout
for two weeks, he went off the rails. He drove off in the motor and stayed
away for two weeks. He had to stay away and sort his grief out. Its very hard
for us ‘cos when the men go away because you know they’re grieving, you’re
grieving as well and you really need the two together but in this culture it
doesn’t happen ‘cos the men have to be up and looking for work and
supporting the other children there and they have to go and find work and put
the food on the table. So they go off and grieve in their own way ( Richardson et al
2007:114)

11.  ‘when you lose your mother your head of the family,
you’ve lost your mentor so your having to fill a pair of
shoes as well as grieve a pair of shoes’ (Richardson et al
2007 :129)


12.  The reality of living with bereavement for Gypsies and
Travellers has significant and lifelong effects.
 Depression
 Anxiety
 Alcohol & substance misuse
 Impacts on parental capacity and family functioning

13.  Gendered responses to grief – alcohol/substance (ab)use
or denial as coping mechanism “the men – boys - don’t want
to talk about it – they pretend it’s alright because they have
to – they can’t cry like us but they go away and drink”
 Anxiety/Depression “I couldn’t walk from that caravan
outside to get a bit of fresh air. I couldn’t do it. I was so
stuffed because I had lost my mother” [died 2 years
previously – recurrent anxiety attacks]
 Premature caring responsibilities (or excessive monitoring
of activities) “My mum wouldn’t let me go to school – she
was that scared what would happen – needed me around –
to know I was alright.. so I stayed at home”

14.  Most organisations providing support act as
gatekeepers –having a known and trusted person to
help access services
 Majority of organisations agree that specialist peer
support workers that have an understanding of Gypsy
and Traveller culture is needed
 NHS Trust (Lincoln) with specialist Bereavement
service felt all communities should have equitable
services rather than specialist support
 All 10 respondents agreed that professionals should
be aware of specific culture of Gypsies and Travellers

15.  Significant anecdotal evidence of the multiple
traumatic bereavements across all generations of
families and of the long term impacts of unresolved
grief.
 An expressed need for specific bereavement support
either through peer support workers or from
professionals who understand Gypsy and Traveller
culture and beliefs

16.  Worden (2003) suggests that grief is often likened
to physical illness and as such needs time to heal.
Thus proposing that bereavement can affect both
physical and emotional health and wellbeing and
have a significant psychological impact throughout
the lifespan.

17.  Every society has a way of dealing with the
influence of the dead on the lives of the
living’ (Silverman 2000 p11)

18.  Brack, J Monaghan,S.(2007) Travellers last Rights :Responding to death in a cultural context. Dublin:
Parish of the Travelling People
 Cemlyn,S. Greenfields,M, Burnett,S. Mattthews,Z. Whitwell,C.(2009) Inequalities experienced by
Gypsy and traveller Communities: A review. Manchester Equality & Human Rights Commission.
 Diacon, D Kritman,H Vine,J.Yafal, S.( 2007) Out in the Open. providing accommodation, promoting
understanding and recognising the rights of Gypsies and Travellers. British Social Housing Foundation
(BSHF) [online] available from: www.BSHF.org.uk accessed 20.09.10
 Goward,P. Repper,J. Appleton,L. Hagan,T. Crossing boundaries, Identifying and meeting the mental
health needs of Gypsies and Travellers. Journal of Mental Health June 2006 15(3):315-327
 Greenfields M. (2009) Reaching Gypsies and Travellers Primary Health Care 19.(8) 26-28
 P arry, G. Van-Cleemput, P. Peters, J,Moore, J. Walters, S. Thomas, K. Cooper,C (19 2004) The Health
Status of Gypsies and Travellers in England [online]available from:
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/scharr/research/publications/travellers.html
 Richardson, J Blossom J. Greenfields,M (2007) East Kent sub-Regional Gypsy & Traveller
Accommodation Assessment Report 92007 –(2012) Leicester De Montfort University
 Silverman, P. (2000) Never to Young to Know, Death in Children’s Lives. New York. Oxford University
Press
 Van Cleemput,P .Parry,G .Thomas, K. Peters,J. Cooper,C ( 2007) Health related beliefs
 and experiences of Gypsies and Travellers: a qualitative study Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health, Vol. 61 (13) pp205 -10.
 Worden,J.W ( 2003) ( 3rd ed) Grief Counselling and Greif Therapy, A handbook for mental health
Practitioners. London. Rutledge