LGBTQ+ Veteran care

Connect with a care coordinator

Care we provide at VA Hudson Valley health care

Our LGBTQ+ Health Program Veterans care coordinator can answer your questions, advocate for your right to quality care, handle complaints or concerns you have about your care, and help you get started with any of our services for LGBTQ+ Veterans. These include:

• Pride In All Who Served health education group
• Mental health services, including psychosocial assessments for hormone therapy and gender-confirming surgeries
• Regular support groups
• Creative arts therapies
• Hormone therapy
• Gender-affirming prosthetics
• Testing, counseling, and care for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, including PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) and PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) for Veterans at risk for HIV
• Other prevention, screening, wellness, and testing services
• Gender-affirming voice therapy

Policies and practices to know

The care coordinator can help you get started with care or with navigating any of these issues.

Visitation: A same-sex partner, family member, friend, or other individuals can be present with the patient for emotional support during the course of the patient's stay.

Definition of family: "Family" may include individual(s) not legally related to the individual. Family members include spouses, domestic partners, and different-sex and same-sex significant others.

Advance directives: Veterans may designate any person as a decision-maker for care if they won't be able to make these decisions themselves. This includes same-sex partners. Advance directive agents are chosen by the Veteran and do not need to be biologically related.

Documentation in medical records: VA Hudson Valley maintains the confidentiality of information about sexual orientation, sexual behavior, and gender identity, just like any other private health information.

Changing name or sex in records: Your name in your medical record will reflect your legal name. The sex in your medical record should reflect your self-identified gender. You have the right to request that your name and sex are updated as appropriate. There are established procedures for changing your name and sex with the VA Privacy Officer. Your birth sex and gender identity are also important parts of who you are. You can now update your record to include your preferred name and gender identity by going to VA.gov. If you have not already created an account on VA.gov, you will need to do so.  Sign into your account, go to your profile, select personal information, and edit your preferred name and gender identity. This change will update your medical record. Check out this fact sheet for to learn more about updating your birth sex and gender identity.

Our care coordinator can be reached through secure messaging at MyHealtheVet.