NYHealth Submits Testimony to the New York City Council Committee on Veterans and Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use Oversight: Mental Health Services for Veterans[...]

Testimony of Derek Coy
Senior Program Officer, Veterans' Health
New York Health Foundation

Submitted to the New York City Council
Committee on Veterans
and Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use
Oversight: Mental Health Services for Veterans and Military Families
September 18, 2026

Thank you, Chair Morano, Chair Cabán, and members of the committees, for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the New York Health Foundation (NYHealth). NYHealth is a private, independent, statewide foundation dedicated to improving the health of all New Yorkers, including the approximately 120,000 veterans who call New York City home, as well as their families and caregivers. I am also a proud veteran, having served as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps.

For more than 15 years, NYHealth has worked to understand and address the health needs of New York's veterans, with a significant focus on mental health and suicide prevention. We do this through grantmaking, policy analysis, advocacy, research, and convenings. Our work has identified service gaps and helped develop community-based programs that meet veterans and their families where they are. We have also partnered closely with City agencies and nonprofit organizations to expand access to high-quality, culturally competent mental health care and support.

New York City has built critical infrastructure and programs through the Department of Veterans' Services (DVS), VetConnectNYC, Mission: VetCheck, peer support programs, and a network of community mental health providers. But the system is under growing strain. Even with these resources, too many veterans go without timely care, and military families often shoulder the burden of navigating a fragmented service system. The recent closure of the NYU Langone Military Family Center makes preserving and expanding community-based capacity especially urgent.

Veterans and Their Families Face Persistent Mental Health Needs

NYHealth's 2024 needs assessment conducted by the RAND Corporation-the first comprehensive review of recently separated veterans in New York in 14 years-found substantial and interconnected needs. More than 60% of recently separated veterans reported a disability. One-third screened positive for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or both, and nearly one in ten reported suicidal thoughts in the prior year. Yet one in five reported an unmet need for mental health care. Among those reporting barriers, one-quarter did not know where to find care, and 40% questioned whether treatment would be effective.[1]

These findings show why insurance coverage or benefit eligibility alone do not guarantee meaningful access. A veteran may be eligible for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) care but not know how to enroll, experience long waits, prefer a community provider, face stigma, or struggle to find a clinician who understands military culture. The broader civilian health care system is not prepared to fill this gap: in fact, prior NYHealth-supported research found that only 2.3% of New York health care providers met all seven criteria for readiness to deliver high-quality, timely, and culturally competent care to veterans.[2]

Mental health challenges also affect the people closest to veterans and active-duty personnel. Spouses, partners, children, caregivers, and survivors often recognize warning signs first, help navigate benefits, arrange appointments, provide transportation, and support recovery. They may also experience stress, isolation, financial strain, or secondary trauma. A system designed around veterans alone can overlook family members, both as an essential source of support and as people who may need care themselves. New York's earliest NYHealth-supported needs assessment therefore examined returning veterans and their families together-a family-centered lens that remains essential today.[3]

Veterans Experience High Rates of Suicide and Deaths of Despair

A forthcoming NYHealth report finds that New York City veterans died by suicide at roughly twice the civilian rate between 2014 and 2023. Suicide rates were highest among veterans ages 18-34 and white veterans; white veterans died by suicide at more than twice the rate of Black veterans. Staten Island and the Bronx had the highest rates of veteran suicide.

The report also explores a broader deaths-of-despair definition, which includes suicide as well as drug- and alcohol-related deaths, and reveals additional disparities among the City's veterans. From 2014 through 2023, the deaths-of-despair rate among veterans was 2.3 times the civilian rate. Deaths-of-despair rates were highest among veterans ages 55-64 and among Black and Hispanic veterans.[4] The deaths-of-despair rate among veterans in the Bronx was 1.5 times higher than the overall rate among veterans in New York City, with Brooklyn having the second highest deaths-of-despair rate. These findings show why prevention efforts must address substance use and health-related social needs alongside suicide risk.

New York City Has Strong Building Blocks-but Gaps Remain

DVS plays an important role as a connector across City, State, federal, and nonprofit systems. But veterans' mental health needs extend beyond what any single agency or health care system can address. Because most veterans do not receive all their care through the VA, it is essential that veterans are identified and connected to culturally competent mental health care wherever they seek services.

Community-based providers are critical. NYHealth has supported organizations such as the Headstrong Project and the NYU Langone Military Family Center to provide free, trauma-informed mental health care to veterans and family members. Peer-based models-including Mission: VetCheck and the Joseph P. Dwyer Veterans Peer Support Program-can reduce isolation, build trust, and connect people to services before a crisis escalates. Veterans consistently report that they are more likely to engage when outreach comes from someone who understands military service and the transition to civilian life. But these programs cannot absorb unlimited demand. The recent closure of the NYU Langone Military Family Center removed a trusted source of no-cost care for veterans and military families, while federal policy and funding uncertainty may place additional pressure on VA and community systems. As a result, other settings that serve veterans have an increasingly important role in identifying needs and connecting them to care.

Veterans Treatment Courts (VTCs) exemplify how nontraditional settings can connect veterans with treatment and peer support. VTCs provide an alternative to incarceration for veterans whose justice involvement is connected to mental health conditions, substance use disorders, or other service-related challenges. They combine judicial supervision with treatment, community-based services, and veteran peer mentorship. NYHealth's analysis of VTCs across New York found that participation reached a record high in 2025 and that more than three-quarters of participants successfully completed their programs between 2013 and 2025.[5]

Peer mentors are a key component of the model. Veterans who serve as mentors provide participants with ongoing support, guidance, and camaraderie based on shared military experience. Strengthening and sustaining a diverse pool of well-trained peer mentors and connecting VTC participants with a wider range of community-based mental health and substance use treatment options can help ensure that justice-involved veterans receive support tailored to their needs.

These examples demonstrate why the City should strengthen coordination across veterans' services, community providers, health care systems, courts, and other settings so veterans and their families can access care through multiple pathways.

To strengthen mental health services for veterans and military families, we offer the following recommendations:

• Protect and expand no-cost, community-based mental health care. Programs that support both veterans and military families should be expanded and replicated to extend their reach, including through telemental health options. These models provide holistic mental health care that addresses the interconnected needs of veterans and their loved ones, reducing PTSD symptoms and alleviating family stress to improve household wellbeing.
• Embed veteran identification and suicide prevention across City systems. Many veterans receive care outside the VA or do not self-identify as veterans. NYC Health + Hospitals facilities, behavioral health programs, primary care practices, homeless services, colleges, and justice-system settings should consistently ask about military service in a culturally competent way.
• Strengthen peer support and proactive outreach. Peer support offers invaluable guidance based on shared experiences. Expanding peer support networks, including the Joseph P. Dwyer Veterans Peer Support Program initiatives and networks tailored for families, could provide emotional support and practical resources. Expansion should be paired with sufficient funding, training, supervision, and referral resources. Programs should also recruit peer leaders who reflect the diversity of New York City's veteran community and can connect participants to appropriate clinical and social services.
• Invest in timely, transparent, and disaggregated data collection and reporting. More timely and disaggregated information on veteran mental health needs, service use, suicide, and deaths of despair is needed to better inform outreach and policy. The City should continue improving reporting on veteran suicide and deaths of despair, strengthen mortality review processes, and use the findings to target outreach and resources. Family and caregiver needs should also be incorporated into future needs assessments and program evaluations.

Conclusion

New York City has many of the pieces in place to ensure an effective mental health system for veterans and military families: a dedicated veterans' agency, strong community providers, peer networks, crisis services, and a history of public-private partnership. The task now is to better align these resources, protect capacity during a period of uncertainty, and make sure that no veteran or family member is left to navigate the system alone.

By expanding community-based care, embedding suicide prevention across settings, strengthening peer outreach, supporting military families, and using better data to guide decisions, the City can build a system that reaches people earlier and responds more effectively. These investments will help prevent crises, reduce disparities, and ensure that veterans and their families receive the care and support they have earned.

At NYHealth, we remain committed to building the evidence base and supporting effective programs for New York's veterans and military families. We hope you will look to the Foundation as a partner and a resource in this work.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I look forward to answering any questions.

[1] Jeanne S. Ringel et al., Understanding Veterans in New York: A Needs Assessment of Veterans Recently Separated from the Military (RAND Corporation, 2024), https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA3304-1.

[2] Terri Tanielian et al., Ready or Not? Assessing the Capacity of New York State Health Care Providers to Meet the Needs of Veterans (RAND Corporation, 2018), https://doi.org/10.7249/RR2298.

[3]The Needs of New York State' s Returning Veterans and Their Families (New York Health Foundation, 2011), https://nyhealthfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/new-york-state-returning-veterans-issue-brief-january-2011.pdf.

[4] Emilia Cobbs et al., "Declining Rates, Persistent Gaps: Veteran Suicide and Deaths of Despair in New York City," Declining Rates, Persistent Gaps: Veteran Suicide and Deaths of Despair in New York City, New York Health Foundation, Publication forthcoming, copy available upon request.

[5] NYHealth, "Veterans Treatment Courts in New York State: Momentum Continues - New York Health Foundation," New York Health Foundation, July 22, 2026, https://nyhealthfoundation.org/resource/veteran-treatment-courts-in-new-york-state-momentum-continues/