NYHealth Testimony on the City Council’s Report Card Initiative

NYHealth Senior Program Officer Derek Coy submitted the following testimony to the April 28, 2025, New York City Council Committee on Veterans Meeting on Oversight - Implementing Recommendations from the City Council's Report Card Initiative.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the New York Health Foundation (NYHealth) regarding the implementation of recommendations from the City Council's Report Card Initiative. 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. I am also a proud veteran, having served as a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps.

For more than 15 years, NYHealth has worked to understand and support the health needs of New York's veterans. We do this through grantmaking, policy analysis, advocacy, research, and convenings. Our work has identified gaps in services and helped develop innovative, community-based programs that meet veterans where they are. Over the years, we have had the opportunity to partner closely with City agencies and partners to ensure New York's veterans receive high-quality, culturally competent care and support.

We appreciate the City's focus on accountability and data transparency through the City Council Report Card Initiative and the Mayor's Management Report. A high-performing City Department of Veterans' Services (DVS) is essential to ensuring New York City's veterans have access to the services and supports they need and deserve. To complement the City's initiatives, we offer independent research and findings from recent NYHealth-supported analyses to inform the Council's ongoing efforts.

Veterans in New York City face unique barriers to care and wellbeing. Our recent Veterans' Health Needs Assessment ^[1] -conducted by the RAND Corporation and released in October 2024-identified several areas where the City can continue to make progress.

The report found that 26% of recently separated veterans in New York State have a probable PTSD diagnosis-a 60% increase since 2010. While some of that increase may reflect improved screening, reduced stigma, and greater access to care, the number remains striking. Nearly two-thirds of these veterans report having a disability, and one in five rate their health as "fair" or "poor"-clear signs that their health needs exceed those of their civilian peers. Alarmingly, more than 20% reported an unmet need for mental health care. Among veterans experiencing suicidal thoughts in the past year, nearly half (43.4%) did not receive the mental health help they needed.

Other data reveals another sobering finding: veterans in New York City die by suicide at nearly twice the rate of their civilian peers. Mental health challenges-including PTSD, suicidal ideation, and substance use-contribute to poor outcomes for veterans. According to NYHealth's own data analysis^[2] , veterans had a 2.5 times higher rate of "deaths of despair"-including deaths related to suicide and alcohol- and drugs- than civilians in New York City from 2012-2021.Younger veterans ages 18-34 had the highest suicide rate of all age groups, and veterans ages 55-64 had the highest rate of deaths of despair, with particularly high rates for Black and Hispanic veterans in the Bronx. These figures represent real people, families, and communities struggling to access the support they have earned.

We know that suicide prevention requires a comprehensive strategy-one that addresses not only mental health care but also economic stability, social connection, and access to community-based support systems.

NYHealth has invested in several programs that directly support these upstream factors, particularly around access to care, peer support, and connection to benefits. In many cases, we have collaborated with New York City agencies and partners to successfully scale and grow these programs. We believe more investment and attention is needed to meet the evolving needs of veterans in New York City and offer the following recommendations:

• Continue to support proactive outreach and wellness programs, including Mission: VetCheck. With NYHealth support, New York Cares-in partnership with DVS-operates Mission: VetCheck, a peer-based outreach program providing wellness check-ins, suicide screenings, and referrals to critical resources. This program has reached thousands of veterans and built a robust referral network for behavioral health, benefits counseling, and housing support.

• Strengthen collaboration between City agencies, community-based organizations, and health care providers to ensure no veteran falls through the cracks. NYHealth has supported initiatives that make it easier for veterans to access benefits and services, including recent veterans' benefit expansions resulting from the largest expansion in federal Veterans Administration benefits through the PACT Act. NYHealth and City support for New York Cares and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America built on existing outreach programs to assist veterans with legal services, health care navigation, and community connection. More collaborations like these can help ensure that veterans are seamlessly enrolled in the services they need.

• Expand peer support initiatives citywide, building on existing successful models. Peer support offers invaluable guidance for families, who benefit from shared experiences. NYHealth has invested in expanding peer-to-peer programs like the Joseph P. Dwyer Peer Support Program (Dwyer program), which has shown success in reducing isolation and connecting veterans to services across New York State. The City's focus on peer programming and its recent Request for Proposal process for the Dwyer Program are well-positioned as an opportunity to expand essential emotional support and practical resources for veterans, families, and caregivers.

• Ensure robust and specific data collection. The City's Bureau of Vital Statistics can make available and leverage relevant local data to aid government and nonprofit organizations in their service delivery and evaluation efforts at relatively little cost. New, more precise data will be a beneficial resource to program planning and policy development at the City level. Future research efforts should also disaggregate data by race, ethnicity, age and borough to better inform tailored programs and address disparities in veteran outcomes.

NYHealth remains committed to supporting veterans' health in New York City. We believe the City Council's focus on data transparency, accountability, and program investment is crucial to ensure that all veterans-and their families-have access to the care and resources they need. We look forward to being a partner in this work.

References

^[1] RAND. 2024. "Understanding Veterans in New York". New York Health Foundation. New York, NY. Available at: https://nyhealthfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/RAND_Understanding-Veterans-in-New-York.pdf .

^[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/