3 questions all health care providers should be asking veterans
The 20 million veterans living in the U.S. today have specific health care needs unique to their military experiences, but has shown that many civilian physicians feel uncomfortable or inexperienced dealing with health-related exposures and risks these veterans might encounter.
To help close this gap, Todd Fredricks, D.O. (鈥93), an associate professor of family medicine at our medical school, and Brian Plow, an associate professor in the in OHIO鈥檚 Scripps College of Communication, created a feature-length documentary, 鈥The Veterans鈥 Project,鈥 with the goal of helping health care providers better treat veterans. The film uses real stories from veterans and health care professionals to highlight the challenges many combat and service-wounded veterans face when seeking care from military, VA and civilian health care systems.
To help physicians better understand and build trust with their veteran patients, Dr. Fredricks, a U.S. Army Colonel and medical officer with the West Virginia National Guard, has identified three simple questions that health care providers should ask all patients.
Question 1
Have you ever served in the armed forces?
Question 2
Did you ever experience any wounds, illnesses or injury as a result of your service?
Question 3
Have you registered with the VA?
These closed-ended questions help health care providers understand who the veterans are within their patient population, while giving veterans who are not comfortable with in-depth conversations about their experiences an out. To hear Dr. Fredricks explain more about the importance of asking these three questions, .
鈥淭he Veterans鈥 Project鈥 is a production of , a collaborative project led by Fredricks and Plow that brings together visual media, the arts and medicine to create and teach through storytelling. The award-winning film was shown Nov. 10 during the inaugural , and has also been presented at the Columbus International Film & Animation Festival, the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts and the National Communication Association Annual Conference.