Inequalities in mental health services for Romani and Travellers

Time for Social Work to Step Up

Bibliographic Data

ID6421085
AuthorsPeter Unwin (0000-0003-1985-1959, Twitter (United States)), Allison Hulmes (0009-0009-6508-4771, Twitter (United States))
Year2025
Volume14
Issue3
Pages1-17
Publication date2025-04-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical and Radical Social Work (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2049-8675 • E-ISSN: 2049-8608
PublisherBristol University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1332/20498608y2025d000000075
OpenAlexW4411065039
LanguageEN
References cited10

Romani and Traveller communities in the UK and Ireland are in the midst of a mental health crisis. These communities have suffered epistemic injustices over the centuries, and social work has been part of this structural oppression. Historical and ongoing trauma is ever present, there are disproportionate numbers of their children in care in England, and suicide rates are high, yet social workers are slow to recognise professional complicity in perpetuating inequality. This article uses mixed methods to elicit views from Romani and Travellers and associated staff about mental health services and offers social workers an example of authentic co-produced research. The conclusions are that social work has colluded in the perpetuation of epistemic injustice that has excluded Romani and Traveller people from being able to access mental health services (hermeneutic injustice) and from being listened to or valued (testimonial injustice). Future social work education and practice must step up

Demographic economics · Economics · Inequality · Mental health · Psychiatry · Social inequality · Sociology · Work (physics · Engineering · Mathematics · Psychology · Romani and Gypsy Studies

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