NYHealth Senior Program Officer Derek Coy submitted the following testimony to the June 10, 2025, New York City Council Committee on Veterans Meeting on Oversight – Increasing Self-Identification by New York City Veterans.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the New York Health Foundation (NYHealth) regarding self-identification among veterans. NYHealth is a private, independent, statewide foundation dedicated to improving the health of all New Yorkers, including more than 133,000 veterans who call New York City home.
My name is Derek Coy; I’m a Senior Program Officer at NYHealth and a proud veteran, having served as a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps.
NYHealth’s work has consistently highlighted the health-related needs of New York’s veteran population, and one of the most persistent barriers to meeting those needs is how we identify—and fail to identify—veterans across service systems. When it comes to identifying veterans, too often we lead with the question: “Are you a veteran?” That may seem straightforward, but for many, it’s a barrier. Women, LGBTQ+ individuals, people of color, those who served during peacetime, and outside of combat zones or in non-traditional roles often don’t see themselves reflected in that label. Others may have been discharged under other-than-honorable conditions or carry stigma around their service.
To address this, we urge New York City to adopt a more inclusive and effective screening question—one that opens the door to care: “Have you or a family member served in the U.S. military?” We know from various state departments of veterans’ services “ask the question” campaigns as well as the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs that how we ask the question matters.[1] Veterans do not all look the same or identify in the same way. Critically, this question also captures caregivers and family members, many of whom play an essential role in a veteran’s care and may qualify for support services themselves.
Effective identification is not just a best practice—it’s a public health imperative.
The consequences of failing to identify veterans are significant:
- NYHealth’s recent analysis shows that veterans in New York City die by suicide at roughly twice the rate of civilians.[2]
- A 2023 RAND study, supported by NYHealth, found more than one-third of New York’s recently transitioned veterans didn’t know what services they were eligible for, and about one in four said they didn’t know where to go to access them.[3]
When we fail to identify someone as having served, we delay their access to health care, housing, mental health treatment, and suicide prevention services—many of which they earned through their service. When we fail to ask the right question, we fail to connect people with the care they’ve earned.
Currently, veteran identification practices vary widely across City agencies and community organizations. This inconsistency leads to inequitable access and weakens the impact of policies and programs intended to support veterans. Although some New York State agencies have begun adopting more inclusive veteran identification questions, broader implementation—particularly in New York City—remains fragmented and incomplete.
We recommend the City Council support the following actions:
- Adopt the use of inclusive veteran identification language. “Have you or a family member served in the U.S. military?” – across all City agency intake forms, service portals, and contracted provider systems.
- Incentivize and encourage adoption of this screening question in the private sector. This may include health centers, hospitals, housing providers, crisis response, workforce agencies, and legal intake settings.
- Train frontline staff across sectors. This helps to ensure staff understand who may count as a veteran, why identification matters, and how to make appropriate referrals.
This isn’t just about better data—it’s about recognizing the diversity of the veteran community, building trust, improving health outcomes, and ensuring that no veteran or family member goes unrecognized or unsupported in the city they call home.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify and for your commitment to New York City’s veteran community.
References
[1] “About.” Ask the Question. Accessed June 3, 2025. https://www.askthequestion.nh.gov/about.
[2] Cobbs, E. Coy, D. Ford, MM. Havusha, A. Sandman, D. 2024. “Navigating the Crisis: Deaths of Despair and Suicide Among New York City Veterans” New York Health Foundation. New York, NY. Available at: https://nyhealthfoundation.org/resource/nyc-deaths-of-despair-suicide/.
[3] Ringel, Jeanne S., Julia Lejeune, Jessica Phillips, Michael W. Robbins, Melissa A. Bradley, Joshua Wolf, and Martha J. Timmer, Understanding Veterans in New York: A Needs Assessment of Veterans Recently Separated from the Military. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3304-1.html. Also available in print form.
