LGBTQ+ Veteran care
The West Palm Beach VA Healthcare System has been designated as a 2020 Leader in LGBTQ Health Care Equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC). In the 2020 report, an impressive 495 facilities earned HRC Foundation’s “LGBTQ Health Care Equality Leader” designation, receiving the maximum score in each section and earning an overall score of 100. The West Palm Beach VA Healthcare System received the top score of 100 after receiving the highest scores possible across multiple criteria.
Our employees receive training in clinical care that is responsive to the unique needs of LGBTQ+ Veterans. Our trained LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinators are fully equipped to support the health, welfare, and dignity of you and your family.
Connect with a care coordinator
Samantha Robinson Ph.D., LCSW
LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator (VCC)
VA West Palm Beach health care
Phone: 561-422-8484 ; 561-422-6225
Email: Samantha.Robinson1@va.gov
Our LGBTQ+ Veteran care coordinators can answer your questions, advocate for your right to quality care, handle complaints or concerns you have about your care, and help you get started with any of our services for LGBTQ+ Veterans. These include:
- Mental health services, including psychosocial assessments for hormone therapy and gender confirming surgeries
- Creative arts therapies
- Hormone therapy
- Gender-affirming prosthetics
- Testing, counseling, and care for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, including PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) and PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) for Veterans at risk of HIV
- Other prevention, screening, wellness, and testing services
VA currently provides all medically necessary gender-affirming care to transgender Veterans except for gender-affirming surgical interventions, due to an exclusion in the VA medical benefits package.
What is to Come
The LGBTQ+ Health Program is pleased to share that in the summer 2021, VA will be initiating the rulemaking process to modify the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to expand VA’s care to transgender Veterans to include gender-affirming surgery.
The entire rulemaking process can take approximately two years and includes a period of public comment. This will allow VA to develop the framework to provide the full continuum of care in a way that is consistent with VA’s rigorous standards for quality health care.
During the rulemaking process, VA will continue to provide or pay for the services it currently offers, including corrective procedures after gender affirming surgeries a Veteran obtains outside VA, hormone therapy, and other gender affirming care.
For more information about our local community partners that do provide these services please contact:
Policies and practices to know
Our Care Coordinator can help you get started with the below:
Visitation: A same-sex partner, family member, friend, or other individual can be present with the patient for emotional support during the course of the patient's stay.
Definition of family: "Family" may include individual(s) not legally related to the individual. Family members include spouses, domestic partners, different-sex and same-sex significant others.
Advance directives: Veterans may designate any person as a decision-maker for care if they won't be able to make these decisions themselves. This includes same-sex partners. Advance directive agents are chosen by the Veteran and do not need to be biologically related.
Documentation in medical records: We maintain the confidentiality of information about sexual orientation, sexual behavior, and gender identity, just like any other private health information.
Changing name or sex in records: Your name in your medical record will reflect your legal name. The sex in your medical record should reflect your self-identified gender. You have the right to request that your name and sex are updated as appropriate. There are established procedures for changing your name and sex with our Privacy Officer.