The Just Ask Campaign

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Just Ask Campaign

In 2023, the Massachusetts Legislature awarded the Western Massachusetts Veterans Outreach Project with a budget earmark to support the Just Ask Campaign. The Campaign's objectives were to highlight how veterans, reserve military personnel, and their families are being treated by civilian healthcare providers, and to encourage providers to gather military service related health information. We wanted to know if and how civilian providers are screening patients for connections to the military, and if the providers are documenting and responding to health conditions in two ways...

The first way is to be curious about military life and culture.

Some questions to consider:

What does it mean to the patient/client to have a military connection?
What is it like serving in the military?
How is military life different from civilian life?

The second way is understanding how military life affects health.

Some questions to consider:

What are the stressors and supports for servicemembers, veterans, and their family members on inactive status and during phases of the deployment cycle (e.g. pre-deployment, deployment and post-deployment)?
Has the patient/client endured any traumatic experiences at one or more phases of the deployment cycle?
Does the veteran or spouse report a Moral Injury from a specific experience or a "bigger picture" issue?
Have any family members had any toxic exposures during deployment or while living on/near a military base?
- What are the current early detection screenings for toxic exposure induced conditions?

With this two-step treatment process in mind, we had three objectives:

First, we asked if and how civilian healthcare providers are screening patients for military connections.

If a provider does not screen for military connections, are they willing to start?
If a provider does screen for military connections, what wording is used in the screening question? Is it limited to "veteran" status, or does it include other military connections like spouses and child dependents?

To formulate the best version of a military-connection screening question, we use both definitions of the word just:

Just asking "the Question" can lead to a significant improvement in treatment outcomes for persons who may not voluntarily discuss their military status or related concerns for various reasons. Just being curious can open the door.

Asking a just question rightly includes all persons who may have military-connected ailments or conditions beyond the more obvious combat injuries. These conditions include Secondary Trauma, Moral Injury, MST, and more.

The best way to "Ask The Question" is: Have you or any family members ever served in the military?

Then we asked community providers what treatments and programs they offer to military-connected patients/clients:

Is treatment related to the client/patient's military experience when their diagnosis is service-connected?
Is there a military Post-Traumatic Stress program, or a program for Moral Injury or Military Sexual Trauma?
Does the provider refer clients/patients with service-connected diagnoses to the Veterans Health Administration, or other civilian providers who specialize in treating military-connected diagnoses.

The first of our Just Ask Testimonies shows how a referral to a veteran-oriented program helped a veteran in ways that general treatment could not.

Third, we offered assistance in gathering educational and supportive materials that civilian healthcare providers can use to improve treatment of their military-connected patients/clients. This assistance included training sessions conducted by WMVOP team members and our affiliates.

Our team has been coordinating the Just Ask Campaign with River Valley Counseling Center, Valley Medical Group, Baystate Health, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Holyoke Medical Center, and Berkshire Health Systems.

To read more on the reasons to screen all patients/clients for military service, see our list of Published Articles.

To explore current academic research on veterans and military families, see our list of Research Centers.

For service agencies that provide organizations with in-service training, see our list of Educational/Training Courses.

For local and national support agencies, see our list of Veteran & Military Family Service Organizations.