National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships
HAP Partnership Impact
VA addresses inequities in Veteran health care
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) identify and work to eliminate barriers that can prevent Veterans from having equitable health care, or “health equity.” Removing these challenges results in better quality of life for Veterans, health outcomes and reduced risk of suicide.
VA is actively addressing these challenges in health equity through additional services and offerings like education opportunities with the GI Bill, food banks at VA medical centers to help with food insecurity, and resource guides that assist with housing insecurity.
Dr. Ernest Moy, executive director of VHA’s Office of Health Equity (OHE), also shared that VHA screens Veterans regularly for a range of health-related social risks such as food insecurity. VHA also provides Veterans with resource guides for their specific social risks and connects them with other offerings to improve their access to positive SDOH–including physical activity, socialization, employment, and housing security. Some individuals systematically experience greater obstacles to better health and wellness. This can be due to gaps in government and community resources, public health policy, and other factors. Health care systems can work toward health equity by assessing these obstacles and taking them into account, or removing them if possible, when determining the needs of their patient population[1].
VHA is helping accomplish this work by addressing structural determinants of care (SDOC)—which impacts the distribution of resources for health due to factors like economic and social policies, political structures, and governing processes. Rather than focusing solely on individual behaviors or traits, structural determinants are the cultural norms and practices that influence the distribution of resources. SDOC can shape the type of social determinants of health (SDOH)—conditions in the environments where Veterans live, learn, work, play, worship, and age—available for Veterans.
“Addressing the social determinants [of health] and structural determinants [of care] that underlie them is a very important part of what we do,” Dr. Moy said. “So many ills in society stem from people not being healthy and not having the social circumstances to maximize the value that they can contribute to society.”
Dr. Moy also explained that if a person has less stress in their life and environment, their health will improve.
“As we move ahead with the different policies that we implement, we need to make sure that there are no adverse side effects that may pop up,” he said.
The VHA National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships (HAP) supports this endeavor by facilitating, managing, and promoting partnerships that support Veteran health and well-being with positive SDOH. Heather Luper, HAP clinical social worker, added that with the help of VHA, Veterans have access to more resources and services for health-related social risks than most civilians do. VHA provides many resources to Veterans to improve their health and wellbeing, access to positive social determinants of health, and advocate on behalf of Veterans for national policies that influence Veteran benefits as part of a population health approach to structural determinants of health.
“We [HAP] strive to develop partnerships that address potential gaps in care and bring more and better health care options to Veterans and their families,” Mrs. Luper said. Partnerships augment the services VHA provides and provides services to those who are not receiving their care from VHA. “It is important that we continue to partner with organizations in the community that are making a positive impact on SDOH and that advocate for equity in SDOC.”
For more information about OHE, please visit https://www.va.gov/HEALTHEQUITY/index.asp.
To learn more about how HAP builds effective partnerships across VHA to support the Veteran population, please visit https://www.va.gov/HEALTHPARTNERSHIPS/index.asp.
[1] Joia Crear-Perry, Rosaly Correa-de-Araujo, Tamara Lewis Johnson, Monica R. McLemore, Elizabeth Neilson, and Maeve Wallace.Journal of Women's Health.Feb 2021.230-235. http://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8882
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Posted April 27, 2022
