Each year on the last Monday in May, we celebrate Memorial Day. “Originally called Decoration Day, [Memorial Day] is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America”. Thank you to all of our active military personnel and anyone who has bravely served this country.
In honor of Memorial Day, we’d like to take this time to highlight the issue of homelessness within the veteran community. We highlight this issue because homelessness is associated with enormous health inequalities and, viewed through the lens of social determinants, is a key driver of poor health.
According to the Homelessness Research Institute, Veterans represent roughly 26 percent of those experiencing homelessness, but only 11 percent of the adult civilian population. Another statistic that highlights this issue was presented by the Center for American Progress. They found that Veterans are 50 percent more likely than other Americans to experience homelessness. From this, one can conclude that veterans are disproportionately affected by housing insecurity as compared to their civilian counterparts. Moreover, this would mean that veterans are also disproportionately affected by poor health outcomes.
With that being said, JaxCareConnect works diligently to help those within our Duval County community who are experiencing housing insecurity and facing health disparities. If you or someone you know are experiencing housing insecurity in Duval County and need access to health care, JaxCareConnect can help! Visit our website for more info: https://jaxcareconnect.org
Resources:
https://www.usmemorialday.org/history-of-memorial-day
https://b.3cdn.net/naeh/21a777fa9df3453e56_14m6bba0t.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5750953/
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2011/11/10/10609/honoring-our-veterans-in-2011/
