The program provides patients with the tools to make healthy lifestyle changes, including access to plant-based dietary resources and individual counseling.
NYC Health + Hospitals has expanded its Lifestyle Medicine Program in Kings County, Brooklyn. This is the third of six new locations to make the program available citywide, following the program’s recent launch in Woodhull in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The Lifestyle Medicine Program team helps patients make evidence-based lifestyle changes, including a healthy plant-based diet, increased physical activity, better sleep habits, reduced stress, avoidance of substance use, and stronger social connections. Adults living with prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or health conditions related to excess weight can sign up. The program can accommodate 48 new patients each month, and each site’s care team includes physicians, a dietitian and an exercise trainer.
“I am excited to celebrate the launch of the Lifestyle Medicine program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County,” said Michelle McMacken, MD, FACP, DipABLM, executive director of Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals. “Healthy lifestyle behaviors are essential for the prevention and treatment of common chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. The Lifestyle Medicine Program’s talented interdisciplinary team will provide patients with the guidance they need to adopt healthier habits, while also helping to address food insecurity and other key barriers to lifestyle change. life. Congratulations to NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County for providing this invaluable resource to patients and the community.
Lifestyle Medicine’s nine-month program provides each patient with the following resources:
- Six to nine individual counseling sessions. Patients will have two to three visits each with a physician, nurse practitioner or certified nurse midwife, dietitian and health coach to develop and implement a personalized care plan.
- 14 weekly group lessons. Topics include reading nutrition labels, grocery shopping, meal planning and preparation, and sleep and stress management techniques.
- Eight weekly exercise classes. Patients will work with an exercise trainer and take home a resistance band for strength training.
- Six free monthly deliveries of fresh seasonal produce. Patients will work with dietitians to learn how to incorporate fruits and vegetables into their diet based on culinary traditions and skill levels. Delicious and healthy recipes developed by the team’s dietitians accompany each box of products.
- Health tickets. Patients will have access to Health tickets, which are $2 coupons that can be used to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at New York farmers’ markets. Five of the program’s seven sites have farmers’ markets on their campuses.
- Cooking Skills Videos. Patients can learn culinary skills through short videos developed by the Lifestyle Medicine team in partnership with an online culinary school, Rouxbe. The videos will showcase healthy cooking across diverse culinary traditions, including the Caribbean, South America, Central America and South Asia, and will be translated into Spanish, Mandarin, Bengali and Haitian Creole.
- A plant-based recipe book. Cookbooks on plant-based eating for type 2 diabetes are also available.
- Support to access benefits. Community health workers will help eligible patients access SNAP benefits and nutrition resources.
“It’s a program with a difference.” said Paulette James, a patient in the lifestyle medicine program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County. “It’s about getting to know yourself and knowing exactly what’s bothering you: how you live, your activities, how you eat. It’s beautiful. The amount of time they took to get to know you blew me away.
Each site will partner with local community organizations to explore ways to support community members with nutrition and other aspects of lifestyle change. NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Lifestyle Medicine Program will collaborate with United Community Centers in Brooklyn.
Once all sites are launched, the program will be able to accommodate nearly 4,000 patients per year. With support from New York City, NYC Health + Hospitals will commit $3 million this year and approximately $5 million annually in future years to fund staffing and programmatic services for New York-style medicine programs. life.
Formal evaluations of the Bellevue pilot program revealed a successful implementation processextremely high demand for services (more than 850 patients requested to register in the first months), and positive health outcomes including clinically and statistically significant improvements weight, glycemic control and diastolic blood pressure.
