National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships
OCE Partnerships and COVID-19
Y-USA, a VHA partner is keeping Veterans moving even if they’re staying indoors at home
A Veterans Health Administration (VHA) partner, Y-USA (the national entity that oversees YMCA facilities across the country) is helping Veterans stay active, even at home, during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Since 2015, this partnership has seen VHA employees throughout the country work with local YMCAs to connect Veterans to needed resources in their communities, as well as services and benefits in the areas of healthy lifestyle programming and community reintegration. Local YMCA facilities throughout the country typically offer opportunities for exercise and physical movement.
Y-USA, also known as “The Y,” is offering free, online, on-demand fitness videos through its “YMCA 360” platform. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has issued the guidance for many Americans to stay at home and avoid gathering in groups, which means in-person fitness classes are not a possibility. Through the YMCA 360 platform, however, any Veteran can access dozens of videos—for activities such as yoga, barre, and those for active older adults—from the safety and comfort of home, even when social distancing.
The benefits to Veterans’ health of physical activity, even in the home, are well-documented: “Sport and physical activity enhance subjective well-being in Veterans through active coping and doing things again, PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder] symptom reduction, positive affective experience … and quality of life,” according to The Institute for Veterans and Military Families.
VHA’s Office of Community Engagement, which supports this and many other partnerships throughout VHA, works to inform Veterans and the public about the social determinants of health (SDOH), which are conditions in the environment where Veterans live; positive SDOH are directly connected to better health outcomes for Veterans. The availability of community-based resources, as well as recreational and leisure-time activities, are positive SDOH that are supported by this Y-USA online resource.
“When Veterans have access to opportunities for physical engagement, they feel better in both body and mind,” said Dr. Tracy L. Weistreich, Nurse Executive of OCE. “These online classes allow for movement but also a connection to the kind of physical routine Veterans may have had before this pandemic hit. We want Veterans to continue to have access to the resources they are used to.”
OCE supports this partnership and many others throughout VHA. Many VHA offices utilize OCE’s partnership expertise to create and strengthen collaborations with nongovernmental organizations. For more information about OCE’s work, please visit https://www.va.gov/healthpartnerships/index.asp.
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Posted April 28, 2020
