National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships
OCE Partnerships and COVID-19
A note from the Veterans Health Administration Office of Community Engagement Nurse Executive Dr. Tracy L. Weistreich on COVID-19 and the 2020 VHA Community Partnership Challenge
To Veterans, VA and VHA staff, and the public,
I wanted to make you aware of the status of what the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Community Engagement (OCE) considers its signature annual event: The Community Partnership Challenge. This contest is one of the ways OCE stays true to its mission to support the creation and growth of partnerships that help Veterans. Each year, VHA employees submit for consideration the partnerships they’re executing on behalf of Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. Every year the Challenge has a theme: this year’s is the social determinants of health, which are conditions in the environments where Veterans life.
Positive social determinants of health, such as access to education, employment, food security, housing, spiritual support, and transportation, make life—and health—better for Veterans. Partnerships are an important component of VHA care that can address needs across all social determinants of health, which many Veterans need support with more critically now than ever, during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Since the three winners of the Challenge each year are highly publicized and receive the VHA Community Partnership Award, this contest helps provide inspiration to other VHA employees to create their own partnerships to help Veterans and allows colleagues to share best practices and ideas with one another. Through the local media attention the winning partnerships receive, the public is also made aware of the great work being done throughout VHA each year.
For these reasons, our Challenge this year will move ahead—the announcement of the winners of the 2020 VHA Community Partnership Challenge will take place later this summer, and the awards ceremony date will be announced at some point later this year in accordance with all public safety regulations around COVID-19. VHA remains focused on the mission to care for and honor America’s Veterans and is committed to providing quality health care and Veteran support, in addition to emergency response, during this public health emergency. Our team knows we’ll all be even more grateful to come together in celebration after we weather the current storm together.
For the time being, please read OCE’s article series on how other VA and VHA offices and initiatives support Veteran’s needs in terms of the social determinants of health here and here.
If you have any questions, please reach out to: communityengagement@va.gov. More information can also be found on our public website: https://www.va.gov/HEALTHPARTNERSHIPS/updates.asp.
In good health,
Dr. Tracy L. Weistreich, Nurse Executive, VHA Office of Community Engagement
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Posted April 28, 2020
