The month of April is designated as National
Minority Health Month. This year’s theme is “Bridging Health
Equity Across Communities.” At VA, the Center for Minority
Veterans (CMV) and Office
of Health Equity (OHE) are raising awareness of the various
factors that impact on the ability of minority Veterans and their families to
reach the highest level of health and wellbeing. VA makes continued commitment
in partnering with other federal agencies to advance equity in its policies via
participation with the Federal Interagency Health Equity Team.
National Negro Health Week laid the foundation for
National Minority Health Month 100 years ago. Dr. Booker T. Washington took the
lead with African American newspapers by proposing
a national week due to his belief that health was the key to
progress and equity in all other things. He called on local health departments,
schools, churches, businesses and professional associations to unite in one
great national movement. His initial efforts have grown to a national
observance of month long initiatives and activities that advance health equity
across the country on behalf of racial and ethnic minorities.
Visit http://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/36662/va-raising-awareness-of-equitable-health-care-during-national-minority-health-month/ to
continue reading this blog post and to learn more about VA efforts towards
health equity in celebration of National Minority Health Month.
April’s Focus
on Health Equity and Action Cyberseminar is dedicated to National
Minority Health Month. The session will focus on minority Veteran’s military
service history and use of VA benefits. Event description and registration
information is below.
Military Service
History and VA Benefit Utilization for Minority Veterans
Thursday, April 27, 2017
3:00 – 4:00 pm EST
Registration Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5353823763119229187
Event
Description
VHA Office of Health Equity is pleased to
partner with the VA Center for
Minority Veterans
for April’s session in observation of National Minority Health Month. April’s
Focus on Health Equity and Action Cyberseminar session spotlights the recently
released Minority Veterans Report: Military Service History and VA
Benefit Utilization Statistics report from the VA Data Governance and
Analytics office. This new report increases our understanding of racial and
ethnic minority Veterans, their use of VA benefits and services, as well as the
impact of military service on their lives post-military. April’s session will
1) discuss the new report and the role of social and economic determinants of
health; 2) highlight VA actions to advance health equity for minority Veterans;
and 3) explore additional ways to best to serve these American Heroes.
Confirmed
Speakers
-
Tom
Garin, DPA
Director, Statistics and Analytics Service,
VA Office of Enterprise Integration, Washington, DC
-
Barbara
Ward, BSN, MPA
Director, VA Center for Minority Veterans,
Washington, DC
-
Uchenna
S. Uchendu, MD
Chief Officer, Office of Health Equity,
Washington, DC
-
Tamara
Lee, MS
Statistician, Statistics and Analytics
Service, VA Office of Enterprise Integration, Washington, DC
Background
Resources
Registration
Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5353823763119229187
Visit
the Office of Health Equity website at http://www.va.gov/healthequity/ for more details
about Veteran health equity issues, VA’s strategic plan to achieve health
equity for Veterans (Health Equity Action Plan), and to learn more about the Focus on Health
Equity and Action Cyberseminar series.
Last week was National LGBT Health Awareness Week (March 27-31, 2017), which raises awareness of health disparities affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals and the need for health equity. The Office of Health Equity joins these efforts to raise awareness of disparities impacting vulnerable Veterans including LGBT Veterans. One example is the OHE Transgender Veteran Protocol. The purpose of this research protocol, and related research, is to examine medical and mental health outcomes among Transgender Veterans and identify disparities these Veterans face when seeking VHA care.
The
main paper from the protocol
was the third most downloaded article as of March 27, 2017 according to the
journal LGBT Health. The study, Mental Health and Medical Health Disparities in 5135
Transgender Veterans Receiving Healthcare in the Veterans Health
Administration: A Case-Control Study, was first published online in December
2015. The study examines psychiatric and mental health outcomes in clinically
diagnosed transgender Veterans receiving VHA care from 1996 to 2013.
Study
authors, including OHE staffer Kenneth T. Jones, PhD, report the following:
-
Statistically
significant disparities for transgender Veterans were present for all 10 mental
health conditions examined, including depression, suicidality, serious mental
illnesses, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
-
Transgender
Veterans were more likely to have been homeless, to have reported sexual trauma
while on active duty, and to have been incarcerated.
- Significant
disparities in the prevalence of medical diagnoses for transgender Veterans
were also detected for 16/17 diagnoses examined, with HIV disease representing
the largest disparity between groups.
In
another study examining racial disparities among non-Hispanic black and
non-Hispanic white Transgender Veterans, the same authors reported:
-
Black
transgender Veterans were more likely than white transgender Veterans to be
diagnosed with alcohol abuse, benign prostatic hyperplasia, congestive heart
failure, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, end-stage renal disease, serious mental
illness, and tobacco use.
-
White
transgender Veterans were more likely than black transgender Veterans to be
diagnosed with depression, hypercholesterolemia, and obesity.
- Black
transgender veterans’ odds of having a history of incarceration was nearly
three times larger and their odds of experiencing homelessness was nearly two
times larger than White transgender veterans.
References
Brown,
G. R., Jones, K. T. (2016). Mental Health and Medical Health Disparities in
5135 Transgender Veterans Receiving Healthcare in the Veterans Health
Administration: A Case-Control Study.
LGBT Health, 3(2), 122-131. Available online at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/lgbt.2015.0058?journalCode=lgbt.
Brown,
G. R., Jones, K. T. (2014). Racial Health Disparities in a Cohort of 5,135 Transgender
Veterans. Journal of Racial and Ethnic
Health Disparities, 1(4), 257-266. Available online at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40615-014-0032-4.
The Journal of the American
Board of Family Medicine has issued a call for papers for a Primary
Care Implementation Science Theme Issue. According to their
website, the editors of the journal are “interested in research that builds the
evidence-base for implementation strategies in primary care practice, including
the implementation and evaluation of patient-centered models of care delivery
and implementation of clinical evidence, and methods for interventions to
diverse practice settings and populations.”
Do not miss this opportunity to include tailored care for
Veteran populations in the content of this special Issue. In addition to
original research and commentaries from the field, this theme issue will highlight
the thematic areas including health equity/disparities, discussed by experts at
the March 2017 Cross Border Primary Care
Symposium held in Washington DC.
The deadline for consideration for this theme issue is July 5, 2017. More information on the
call for papers can be accessed on this link: http://jabfm.org/site/misc/Call%20For%20Papers.xhtml.
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