Improving Mental Health for Veterans Through Partnerships

• Hosted two events focused on sharing best practices and partnership opportunities within the veteran community. The events were attended by more than 100 members of the veteran community, including representatives from veteran service organizations, pertinent government agencies, and fellow funders;
• Shared best practices with partners to increase the potential for future collaboration among relevant veteran service organizations; and
• Demonstrated a clear need for a neutral convener to share information on best practices for partnerships in the veteran community.

See the event recap for the first convening co-hosted by NYHealth and MHA-NYC, “Public-Private Partnerships: Behavioral Health Needs of Veterans & Families.”

MHA-NYC originally aimed to launch a targeted print and social media campaign to accelerate partnerships between the VA and mental health organizations and providers. It issued a press release through VMHC, conducted social media outreach, and authored a blog post in HuffPost. However, evolving priorities and staff turnover at MHA-NYC prevented media outreach from being executed to its full potential.

To supplement its outreach efforts, MHA-NYC hosted a second event to expand on ideas shared during the first convening. The event focused on how small- and mid-sized organizations could partner together to expand behavioral health services for veterans and their families.

Co-Funding and Additional Funds Leveraged: N/A