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Relationships affect your health and well-being. Research shows that having strong relationships can lower our risk of catching a cold or even having a heart attack. Connections to family, friends, community, and even animals can help reduce stress and improve your physical and emotional well-being.
“[VA groups] helped me build better relationships and healthy habits… This helps me physically, emotionally, and socially… I have gotten stronger and have fun!” – Veteran Reginald Evans, pictured here with Recreational Therapist Sharmayne Yusuff.
Both isolation and difficult relationships can make you get sick or keep you sick. To improve your health, improve your relationships! Evaluate your current relationships and take steps to strengthen them. Make new friends through support groups, volunteering, getting a pet, or working with animals.
Take the next step today:
- Build community with fellow Veterans by joining one of San Francisco VA’s regular recreational outings. Recent outings have included sports events, museum visits, movies, national park visits, and even equine therapy. Contact Sharmayne Yusuff at 415-319-5123 to sign up.
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Click here to assess your relationships, learn to strengthen positive ones, and forge new connections.
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Learn more about how improving relationships can help you Live Whole Health.
- Did you know that good relationships lessen chronic pain? Your relationships with family and friends play a crucial role in managing chronic pain. In this episode of a Whole Health podcast series, Dr. Steve Hunt, a VA primary care physician specializing in post-combat care, explains how relationships affect pain tolerance. The episode, “You Are Not Alone: Strengthening Supporting Relationships When Dealing With Chronic Pain,” is part of a 12-part series hosted by Dr. Carol Bowman, a VA specialist in treating people with chronic pain. The series provides information on pain management based on the Circle of Health, including “friends, family, and co-workers.”
Elevating our pain threshold
Dr. Hunt explained there are two types of pain: acute (temporary pain resulting from illness or injury) and chronic (pain that lasts 3 months or more). “If you break your leg and you've got acute pain, we want to do something to take the pain away. If you have chronic pain, there are all these other factors involved. The goal shifts from trying to take the pain away to trying to elevate our pain threshold…[which] allows us to still have a functional healthy, happy life” he said.
Supportive relationships reduce pain levels
Veterans experiencing chronic pain often feel isolated because family members and loved ones can’t understand what they are going through. In turn, loved ones may feel alienated from them and confused as to how to help.
However, safe and supportive relationships can reduce pain levels. Strengthening bonds with loved ones can increase the ability to tolerate chronic pain.
“Family, friends, and colleagues comprise the heart of [pain] care,” according to Dr. Hunt. “You [the Veteran] deserve to be cared for in the very best way. Seek out relationships where you feel respected and cared for and heard and supported in those ways, wherever those might be.”
Learn more about the connection between relationships and well-being
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Veterans who deployed to a combat zone, never enrolled in VA health care, and left active duty between Sept. 11, 2001 and Oct. 1, 2013 are eligible to enroll directly in VA health care. This special enrollment period gives Veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other combat zones an opportunity to enroll directly in VA health care without first applying for VA benefits.
VA encourages all of these Veterans to visit VA.gov/PACT or call 1-800-MYVA411 to learn more and sign up for VA health care before the deadline. Veterans who are enrolled in VA health care are proven to have better health outcomes than non-enrolled Veterans, and VA hospitals have dramatically outperformed non-VA hospitals in overall quality ratings and patient satisfaction ratings. Additionally, VA health care is often more affordable than non-VA health care for Veterans.
This special enrollment period is a part of the PACT Act, the largest expansion of VA health care and benefits in generations. Since President Biden signed the PACT Act into law on Aug. 10, 2022, more than 344,000 Veterans have enrolled in VA health care and more than 4.2 million enrolled Veterans have been screened for toxic exposures.
"Are you a Veteran who deployed to a combat zone but never enrolled in VA health care? If you left active duty between Sept. 11, 2001, and Oct. 1, 2013, you should sign up now," said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “Even if you don’t need this care now, you may need it in the future – and once you’re in, you have access for life. But don’t wait – the deadline is Sept. 30 — so go to VA.gov/PACT and apply today."
 VA Health and Benefits mobile app puts VA information and resources at Veterans’ fingertips — anywhere, anytime! Veterans can view and cancel health care appointments, refill and track VA-dispensed prescriptions, view claims and appeals status, upload documentation to VA, get their vaccine records anywhere and anytime, securely message their doctor, locate VA facilities, access the Veterans Crisis Line, and more — right from their smartphones — with VA’s Health and Benefits mobile app.
The mobile app also makes it easy to prove your status as a Veteran so you can take advantage of available retailer discounts at stores and restaurants. More than a million users in the Veteran community are already accessing their benefits and services safely and securely, wherever and whenever they need them using the app.
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About Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Veterans Affairs established 1-800-MyVA411 (1-800-698-2411) to help Veterans, their family members, caregivers, and survivors understand and access the broad spectrum of VA benefits and services.
Call 1-800-MyVA411 for information about:
- COVID-19 updates
- Health care eligibility and enrollment
- VA benefits, such as disability, compensation and pension, education programs, caregiver support, insurance, home loans, and burial headstones and markers among others
- The nearest VA medical centers, benefits offices or cemeteries to Veterans, VA Medical Center operational updates and connection to VA Medical Center operators
- Directory assistance and technical support for VA.gov
- Debt and payment options
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