Veteran Health Equity Art Gallery
The Office of Health Equity has asked artists who have connections to the military to help visualize the military experience, social justice, and what health equity for all Veterans might look like. This gallery grew out of Office of Health Equity’s Health Equity Action Plan efforts to increase awareness of the significance of health disparities, their impact on the nation, and the actions necessary to improve health outcomes for racial, ethnic, and underserved populations.
Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Artist Call for Submissions
The Office of Health Equity is calling on Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander artists who have served, are currently serving, or are a family member of those who have served in the military to submit their work to be displayed at Office of Health Equity’s Virtual Art Gallery. Artists interested in submitting their work should review the Call for Submissions.
Current Exhibition: Black Veterans Experiences with Weight-Related Care
Nearly half (44%) of Black Veterans who use VHA care have obesity (Breland et al., 2017). The MOVE! Weight Management Program for Veterans (MOVE!) is supported by VA's National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (NCP). Adapted from the evidence-based Diabetes Prevention Program, MOVE! assists Veterans to achieve clinically meaningful (~5%) weight loss to improve their health and reduce their risk for chronic health conditions, like diabetes. However, Black Veterans lose less weight after participating in MOVE! than White Veterans (Hoerster et al., 2014). VA clinicians listened to and learned from Black Veterans to develop recommendations on how to improve MOVE! experiences and outcomes for Black Veterans. These included:
- Hire and retain providers who understand and respect Black patients and are committed to delivering evidence-based, culturally-sensitive care.
- Tailor weight management programs to individual diets, including information about how to make traditional foods healthier and how to incorporate preparation methods from other cultures. Materials should not vilify culturally important foods.
- De-emphasize Body Mass Index (BMI) as a measure of health and well-being.
NCP has already begun incorporating its recommendations to ensure Veterans enrolled in MOVE! are receiving evidence-based and culturally-sensitive weight-related care.
Some of the Veterans’ submissions – photos, poetry, and responses – are included in this exhibit. The results of this work are also published open access in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (Breland et al., 2024, epub ahead of print).
Please click on the Veterans' hyperlinked quotes to expand the images.
|
|
“A visit to the provider should be a good and thorough work up. We are missing that.” |
|
|
|
|