At a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) asked Tri-State Women Warriors President Christina Schauer to explain gender disparities in veterans’ healthcare access.
00:00I just had a final question for Ms. Schauer. I was wondering if you could speak about specifically women veterans, and we've had a lot of conversation, obviously, focused on rural health care, but I think that those challenges to access for women is probably greater. But I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to that experience.
00:18Yeah, our women veteran population, of course, we have a lot of unique needs. Military sexual trauma is probably one of the most prominent, though not isolated to women veterans, a higher percentage of women veterans.
00:31What I find in our community is hesitance towards using the VA because of experiences they had 10, 20 years ago, you know, when you dig into it.
00:44And so just trying to encourage them that today's VA is different and you're in a place where you'll be welcomed. And once they try it again, they see and they believe and they socialize it with each other.
00:56But I think it's it's getting them in that door. And I think the social isolation that you're talking about, I love I want to learn more about that program, because that's really why our community was created and hearing about the high suicide rates for women veterans, which as a nurse, having been a nurse for 15 years at that point, I was completely unaware of.
01:16And and and and when we started our group, we had immediate energy behind it and it just keeps growing and it just shows that need for people.
01:27And and often it does take asking them two, three, four times to come.
01:32But once they come, they're like so excited for the next meetup.
01:36So I do think women have unique needs that have gone a little bit unnoticed and unrecognized for a while.
01:41And I'm really happy that today's VA is is seeing that and and addressing that.
01:50Thank you very much. I'll yield back, Mr. Chairman.
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