Improving Access To Critical Services

The social needs and social determinants of veteran health and wellbeing are complex and varied. Delivering holistic care and coordination between government and community-based health and human services providers has proven to be a key factor in success for veterans.

Taking Action For Veteran Health & Wellness

The IVMF policy team works collaboratively across offices, agencies and institutions to provide expertise, research insights and data to help craft policy that can make integrated veteran care coordination a reality.

Recommendations Overview

Here is a brief overview of IVMF policy recommendations for integrating health and social care:

• Ensure that the implementation of the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act Section 201 follows identified key priorities.
• Improve the process by which community providers can identify transitioning service members moving to their communities.
• Expand the SAMHSA/VA Governor’s Challenge to End Veteran Suicide to All 50 States.

The Road Ahead: Progress & Action

IVMF partnered with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University to host a roundtable for congressional staff on the topic of addressing veterans’ health related social needs/social determinants of health, post-Hannon Act implementation. Conversations are continuing with Senate and House staffers focused on care coordination within the Veteran and Healthcare space as new legislation integrating health and social care is introduced in Congress. Additionally, the IVMF team is actively engaged with Senate and House staff on the implementation of the VA’s recently launched Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program and will help shape and support the program.

Get Informed: A Roadmap for Improving Veteran Care

The IVMF policy brief, Integrate Health and Social Care, details the social needs and social determinants of veteran health, the challenges and potential solutions to ensure the health and wellbeing of our veterans and their families. Download the brief to get informed.

Facing an Unsure Financial Future

Advancing economic opportunity is one of the most critical factors to promote veteran well- being and prevent negative health outcomes. While unemployment has trended lower, underemployment is at all time highs for veterans.

Taking Action For Veteran Success

The IVMF policy team leverages a research intensive approach and boots-on-the-ground connection to IVMF education and training programs to develop data-driven policy initiatives that drive real results for expanding economic opportunity for veterans and their spouses.

The Need: Facts & Issues

• Transitioning service members cite finding a job (55%) and applying military skills to civilian work (41%) among their top transition stressors.
• 62% of African American veterans cite finding a job as their number one challenge.
• There is wide variance in the quality of job training programs available to transitioning service members and spouses depending on their geography
• Nearly one-third of veteran job seekers are underemployed—a rate 15% higher than non-veterans.
• Military spouses often cannot participate in DoD Skillbridge programs unless there is available space.

Recommendations Overview

Here is a brief overview of IVMF policy recommendations for expanding economic opportunity for veterans and spouses:

• Develop a competitive grants program that funds skills training and career placement.
• Review and improve inter-agency data quality, sharing, and integration practices between VA, DOL, and DOD.
• Pursue a unified framework for their effective performance measurement, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Expand economic opportunity for military and veteran spouses through tax credits and employer coalitions.
• Focus policy and programmatic efforts to tailor support services for women veterans.

The Road Ahead: Progress & Action

The IVMF policy team is conducting a series of engagements with congressional staff to inform and shape new policy to address economic opportunity challenges for those in transition as well as veterans in the workforce looking to upskill or reskill to adapt to the rapidly changing demands and opportunities for talent. Additionally, the IVMF policy team is working with committee staff to make improvements to the VA’s VET TEC program pilot. The team is also working closely with the Small Business Administration and industry partners in the Coalition for Veteran Owned Businesses to shape new legislation supporting capital readiness and training needs of veteran and military-affiliated entrepreneurs.

Get Informed: A Roadmap for Economic Opportunity

The IVMF policy brief, Expand Economic Opportunity for Veterans and Military Spouses, details the need, challenges and potential solutions to open the doors to economic opportunity for our veterans, their spouses and their families. Download the brief to get informed.

Identifying the Social Determinants for Health & Wealth

Better translating current research studies, developing new indepth research and improving implementation science all help build key evidence that makes better policy. This is particularly true for social determinants of health that contribute to veterans’ welfare such as environment, economic stability, and social and community conditions.

Research & Collaboration are Key for Veteran Wellbeing

The IVMF policy team works closely with congressional offices, government agencies and peer institutions to advance research and data sharing approaches that enable the development of evidence-based policy that effectively identifies and addresses the underlying social determinants of veteran health.

The Need: Facts & Issues

While the VA conducts cutting-edge clinical research, there is growing capacity and base of research being conducted by higher education institutions and non-government organizations focused on non-clinical factors contributing to veteran overall well-being — the social determinants of health. These determinants include environment, economic stability, and social and community conditions

Research on the social determinants of veteran health can make a significant contribution to the ongoing medical research seeking to understand the wellbeing of veterans, but it will require the VA to expand its capacity to formulate evidence-based policy through new partnerships and programs.

Recommendations Overview

Here is a brief overview of IVMF policy recommendations for improving capabilities for evidence-based policy:

• Congress and the VA should explore the feasibility of expanding VA’s partnerships with Universities and nongovernmental research entities.
• Pass legislation or repurpose currently appropriated dollars to support county level data infrastructure improvements that better identify veterans in communities and types of services utilized.
• Take an inter-agency and intergovernmental approach to better understanding the needs and challenges of women veterans.

The Road Ahead: Progress & Action

The IVMF policy team has worked with offices on the Health and Veteran Affairs’ committees who are interested in advancing policy that address the overall health and well-being of the veteran. Staffers rely on the IVMF as a trusted resource for expertise, data and insights in this area to guide future legislation. New initiatives are emerging around the need to foster better intra-agency (VHA to VBA), interagency (DoD, VA, Labor), and cross-sector data sharing. The goal is to continue to shape veteran-specific data sharing actions and applications that would build on recent legislation like the Secure Research Data Network Act that was passed with the

CHIPS Act in 2022.

Get Informed: A Roadmap for Effective Evidence-Based Policy

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