When I started working as a Traveller Community Health Care Worker six years ago, I knew very little about Traveller health and had never seen health statistics.
It shocked me to learn that I might die 12 years earlier than a settled woman or that my children were three times more likely to die in their first year than the majority population.
Irish Travellers have the same range of illnesses that Irish settled people have, but because of the conditions some Travellers are forced to live in, illnesses are more common and the outcomes more severe.
A quarter of Travellers living in Ireland still have no access to running water or sanitation. Even some serviced sites are still very basic.
Travellers in these conditions have a higher incidence of gastro-enteritis and chest complaints, for example.
Travellers have poor uptake of available health services, and as a Traveller I can explain some of the reasons why.
GPs in general are very sceptical about registering Travellers as patients.
There are only two GPs in my area willing to register Travellers.
So for my family to visit our GP if anyone is sick, we have to travel 12 miles.
We live in a trailer by the side of the road, are not on a bus route and transport is limited.
I am afraid to change GPs because I am not sure if the GP in the village two miles away will register me.
So while casualty departments are overstretched, many Travellers, including myself, are forced to use them almost as a GP service.
Once when I brought my child to casualty, I was asked by a tired young casualty doctor why my file was so big and did I not use my own doctor at all. When I tried to explain the reasons he just walked away.
It is frustrating for me to travel 12 miles to my GP, just as it is frustrating for casualty departments to treat minor illnesses, not emergencies.
As healthcare workers, we give Traveller families information that will help them make informed choices around health.
There are still many barriers, so we are lobbying at a national level for changes in policy that will allow better access to health for Travellers.
Myself and another Traveller healthcare worker represent Travellers on the National Traveller Health Advisory Committee so Travellers' voices are heard in the decision-making that affects us.
I believe this listening and learning on both sides is the way forward. Ireland is a multicultural society.
Services need to be flexible to respond to people's needs in an appropriate way.
Kathleen Joyce is a Traveller Community Health Worker in the Primary Health Care for Travellers Project, Pavee Point, in partnership with the health boards in the Eastern Region