Launch of final reports
The study reports are all finalised and will be launched by Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney T.D., on the 2nd September 2010 in Dublin Castle at 11am. The launch is being organised by the Department of Health and Children and participants will receive invitations from the department in due course.
Final reports
The study results will be released as three technical reports (TR). Each of these reports includes methodology, results, appropriate references and detailed bibliography and one summary of findings report.
TR1: Includes the following sections (270 pages)
- Census study
- Adult Health Status
- Adult Health utilisation
- Child Health - 5, 9, and 14 year olds
TR2: Includes the following sections (150 pages)
- Demographic study
- Mortality study
- Birth Cohort study
- Travellers in Institutions
TR3: Includes the following sections (approx 180 pages)
- Qualitative - Focus groups and semi structured interviews
- Health Service provider study
- Discussion
- Bibliography
Key Findings (approx 225 pages)
Is a detailed summary of all the reports with a section of discussion.
Due to the volume of information generated (800 plus pages) and the number of reports produced, the Department of Health and Children has said that the Key Findings report is the only report that will be published in paper form. The other three reports will be digital documents - PDFs - and will be made available on CD /USB keys and made available online on various websites.
Report Launch
The Department of Health and Children is responsible for the launch. The Department is currently preparing a list for invitations to the launch which are to be sent out next week.
The capacity in the Coach House in Dublin Castle is limited to 180. Due to the limited space it has been agreed that there would be a quota allocated to stakeholders in the study; Travellers representatives have lobbied for 100 places to be reserved for Travellers and Traveller organisations, with priority going to the Primary Health Care for Traveller Projects, the CDPs, the Traveller Training Centres and the Traveller Reference Group that were instrumental in supporting the role out of the study.
This means that in most cases, only one representative from each project will receive an invitation to the launch in the morning.
The rest of your team should go to the recognition ceremony in UCD on the same day, (where the DVD of summary results will be shown) and reports of findings will be available. If your representative at the launch is a peer researcher or study coordinator they will have time to get to UCD after the launch to get their certificate.
Recognition/Presentation Ceremony
UCD will award a Certificate of Recognition to each peer researcher and each Study Coordinator for the collection of data and the successful completion of fieldwork on the ground.
This will be awarded at an official ceremony in the O’Reilly Hall in UCD, Belfield, South Co. Dublin. The invitations to this will be sent out by UCD in the next few days.
Registration for this event will begin at 12.00 and will be followed by lunch and the ceremony.
The ceremony will be formal with an academic procession. Each person will be called up individually to receive certificates from the Professor Cecily Kelleher.
Only members of the UCD Academic Procession will wear academic robes - those receiving their certificates should not. More details on the protocol will be circulated to those who confirm attendance. A contribution will be made towards projects public transport bill and this will be processed by UCD via Pavee Point after the event.
Releasing the results of the study
It had been the intention of the study to release information to participants at intervals throughout the study.
The Technical Steering Group (including the Traveller representatives) decided during the study not to do this, based on the concern that releasing census results would result in media attention reflecting only one aspect of study findings - the results of the Census. The danger was that this could lead the media to report the challenging results of the census without an understanding of the totality of the study. It could also decrease public and media interest in the full, considered results of the study.
There were many facets to the research, with the various sub-studies which allowed the final findings to be more robust, as they are triangulated and reflect different aspects of Traveller’s health.
We’re confident that the final outcome will be worth the contribution of all stakeholders and stands a very good chance of being well reported.
Following this decision the UCD team and members of the TSG were then bound by a confidentiality agreement not to disclose any findings as they are the property of the Department of Health and Children who commissioned and funded the research.
As a result, no one is allowed to discuss or disclose the findings until after the launch of the reports on the 2nd September.
Launch DVD
Following lobbying from the Traveller organisations represented on the TSG for the study, UCD has agreed to fund a DVD for the launch.
The DVD will highlight the findings of the study in a Traveller-appropriate manner, which was felt necessary, as the report contains some very detailed scientific information that is valuable to academics but less useful for laypeople, whether Traveller or settled.
It will be a short DVD, intended at this stage to be shown on the day of the launch and at the recognition event. It will illustrate the key findings of the study with comments from Travellers and UCD and the Department of Health and Children.
