Salute Your Veteran Patients by Asking the Question: “Have you or a close family member ever served in the military?”
by Andrea Perry, RN, MN, RN-BC, Suicide Prevention, Community Engagement and Partnerships Coordinator, Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Why Ask the Question?
Two-thirds of Veterans are not connected to the Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System. They are your patients in local community clinics, dental and chiropractor offices, and mental and behavioral health care centers. They may not be easy to identify in your clinical practice because they likely haven’t been asked if they served in the military. You can help empower those who have served to identify themselves, as some Veterans may not recognize themselves as such or may not feel comfortable drawing attention to their service.
Screening for military service—or the Ask the Question (ATQ) Campaign—is a movement that the Minnesota Firearm Safety and Suicide Prevention Coalition (of which the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians is a part of) and Veteran-supporting organizations are encouraging, in order to identify Veterans and their family members in non-VA health care settings.
Identifying Veteran patients can help:
- Ensure Veterans have the opportunity to utilize VA and non-VA health care benefits available to them. The VA continues to expand health care coverage for eligible Veterans seeking care in the community, including paying for emergency visits, co-pays, pharmacy benefits, medical equipment, in-home services and more. Access to benefits that eligible Veterans are entitled to serves not only Veterans and their families, but community health care partners as well. Allocation of Veteran benefits allows imperative health care funds and resources to be redistributed to other patient populations in need.
- Health care teams recognize health risk factors associated with military service. Veterans often have more complex health care needs and are 1.5 times more likely to die by suicide, compared to their civilian counterparts. Veterans who have experienced trauma, moral injury, military sexual trauma or post-traumatic stress have an increased risk for suicide. Identifying those who have served offers physicians and other health care providers the opportunity to recognize the incidence of these significant risks and to address mental health needs and suicide prevention.
If the Answer is “Yes”
Physicians and health care teams will…
- Gain an understanding of a Veteran’s service experience in order to better facilitate appropriate diagnoses, treatment planning and referrals for care.
- Be empowered to detect toxic exposure, traumatic injuries and various adverse effects of hazards experienced during military service.
- Build rapport and demonstrate cultural intelligence around the military and the unique needs of those who have served.
Veteran patients can be…
- Provided with resources, including easy access to VA eligibility and enrollment and other county, state and federal benefits.
- Informed of local Veteran-supporting organizations, programs and non-profits—many of which provide free or reduced cost services for those who have served and their families.
How to Get Started
Advocate that your organization start Asking the Question (ATQ) or screening patients for military service. ATQ implementation will be unique to the care setting in which it is being employed, in order to best integrate into workflow, documentation and existing consult pathways. Once a patient is screened, this data should be easily accessible to staff and remain as evident as a person’s name or other demographic information.
Explore a successful ATQ campaign in health care and access helpful resources for medical teams: Health Care & Medical Services | State of New Hampshire Agency Website (nh.gov)
References
National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide 2018-2028. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report. 2023. Veterans Affairs Suicide Prevention Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.
To learn more on how to implement ATQ in your practice, please contact Andrea Perry, RN, Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center Suicide Prevention, Community Engagement and Partnerships Coordinator, at Andrea.Perry@va.gov.
