Adagio Health proudly serves 1,100 veterans in western PA in our medical offices, through behavioral health services, nutritional programs, and community educational services.  Many women veterans struggle to identify themselves as a “veteran” although they have served. This project aims to help this specific population feel welcome and that health care is a priority. 

As part of our outreach to this population, in 2019, Adagio Health offered wellness retreats for women veterans and initiated the western Pennsylvania version of the award-winning "I Am Not Invisible" photography and storytelling project. 
 

Adagio Health has partnered with local and national veteran resources to bring health care to veterans. In 2021: 
 

• Adagio Health provided Mental Health First Aid training for the staff at Veterans Place, a shelter and case management service provider for homeless veterans. 

• Adagio Health staff were trained through Psych Armor to become a Veterans Ready Healthcare Organization. 

• Adagio Health has partnered twice with Rise Rank & File to provide a sexual and reproductive health educational session for women veterans. The event is called Rules of Engagement and focuses on setting boundaries to ensure safety.

• The organization continues to identify gaps in services and additional needs of women veterans from research findings.

• Staff tabled at Veterans Leadership Program Stand Down and Women Veteran’s Resource Fair.

• The American Public Health Association invited Adagio Health to present at the annual conference on our women veterans program.

• We are planning a women veterans-themed presentation for the Better Health Outcomes speaker series in early 2022. 

 

November is National Veterans and Military Families Month, and we celebrate Veterans Day on November 11th. In honor of the many women (men, and other genders) who have served, we reflect on the words of Theodore Roosevelt:
 

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
 

Adagio Health provides safe, compassionate, and competent care to all women who have served in the military, regardless of discharge status or other documentation. We accept most commercial insurances along with Medicaid and TRICARE, and for people who don’t have insurance, we offer reproductive health and cancer screening services regardless of ability to pay. Stay connected for more information about Adagio Health’s women veterans’ programs or visit https://www.adagiohealth.org/womenveterans.