RAND Corporation

Veterans represent a special population of men and women who have served their country and have faced extraordinary health risks during their deployments.

Because many of them have served on overseas missions—including combat—veterans with service-connected health issues are a clinically complex and potentially vulnerable population. Although the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) aims to meet the health care needs of all eligible veterans, many seek care outside of the VA, in part because of a personal preference to receive care from community-based, private, non-VA providers. However, only a small percentage of civilian mental health providers are prepared to offer culturally competent care for veterans. In 2017, NYHealth awarded RAND Corporation (RAND) a grant to understand the current state of New York’s health care workforce in providing high-quality health care to veterans in private, community-based settings.

Under this grant, RAND assessed civilian providers’ capacity and readiness to address health-related needs of veterans and their family members, as well as providers’ experience working with veterans, especially as a VA-contracted provider. Specifically, RAND identified key concerns and improvements needed by developing and administering surveys to a sample of New York State health providers. It generated recommendations for improving provider readiness and military cultural competence, including State- and locally based efforts to educate, train, and equip health care providers to meet the needs of veterans with service-related health problems. The findings and recommendations were disseminated through a final report, a briefing document, and a professional journal article, as well as shared with the VA Under Secretary of Health.

Read the report “Ready or Not? Assessing the Capacity of New York State Health Providers to Meet the Needs of Veterans“