Lifestyle Medicine Program Expands to NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County as Part of Citywide Expansion

Lifestyle Medicine Program Expands to NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County as Part of Citywide Expansion

November 30, 2023

New York, New York — NYC Health + Hospitals announced today that its Lifestyle Medicine Program has expanded to NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County in Brooklyn. This is the third of six new sites to make the program available citywide, following the program’s recent launch at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi in the Bronx and NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull in Brooklyn. The pilot program, launched at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in 2019 with the support of then-borough President Eric Adams, has already seen hundreds of patients. 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, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwife (Woodhull only), dietitian, health coach, community health workers , a psychologist, a program coordinator and an exercise trainer. The six new locations include NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi, Woodhull and Kings County, which have already launched, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, Lincoln and Gotham Health, Vanderbilt, which will launch in the coming months. Current NYC Health + Hospitals patients can get a referral to the program from their provider, and individuals who are not yet NYC Health + Hospitals patients can see if they are eligible to enroll in the program by contacting 347-507-3695.

“Being a food-forward city means ensuring that all New Yorkers can make healthy behavior changes, which for some might include transitioning to a whole-food, plant-based diet,” said Kate MacKenzie, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy. “We are grateful for Health + Hospitals’ continued partnership in upstream targeting key drivers of disease and inequities critical to overall increases in life expectancy in underserved communities across the five boroughs. Through this expansion of lifestyle medicine, New Yorkers disproportionately affected by chronic illnesses in Kings County will have access to the tools and interdisciplinary support that can help them lead longer, healthier lives that they deserve.

“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.

“The launch of our Lifestyle Medicine program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County demonstrates our commitment to holistic wellness,” said Sheldon McLeod, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County. “We are excited to offer a program that provides our patients with resources to adopt healthier habits, such as access to plant-based foods and one-on-one counseling sessions. With our Lifestyle Medicine program, we are revolutionizing healthcare by offering more than just treatment: we offer empowerment.

“I have high cholesterol and am prediabetic, so my doctor referred me to the lifestyle medicine program,” said Timothy Nicholls, a patient in the NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Lifestyle Medicine program. “I’m learning to make better choices about what I eat. I eat more green vegetables, more celery, more fruit. I’m learning to exercise more and walk more. The program is exactly what I was looking for.

“It’s a program with a difference.” said Paulette James, patient in the NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Lifestyle Medicine Program. “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.

Lifestyle Medicine’s nine-month program provides each patient with the following resources:

• 6 to 9 individual counseling sessions. Patients will have 2-3 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.

• 8 weekly exercise classes.Patients will work with an exercise trainer and take home a resistance band for strength training.
• 6 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. (Launches early 2024)
• 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. (Launches early 2024)
• 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.

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.

“We are very pleased to be able to collaborate to share preventative solutions with community members looking to live healthier lives,” said Sarah Bacio, deputy project director at East New York Farmsa United Community Centers project. “I hope this collaboration strengthens our relationship with NYC Health + Hospitals and provides our customers in the marketplace with valuable resources and support to enable them to make healthier choices.” Connecting people to fresh, organic, locally grown produce and providing spaces for them to learn how to make more informed health decisions is invaluable! »

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.

Particular attention was paid to ensuring the program was relevant to patients from diverse backgrounds and experiences. For example, the Spanish language curriculum reflects cultural adaptations, not a simple translation of the English version. Additionally, individual visits with medical providers, dietitian, and health coach enable tailored behavior change recommendations based on each patient’s social, financial, cultural, and family context.

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.

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MEDIA CONTACT: 212-788-3339; PressOffice@nychhc.org

About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the nation’s largest municipal health system, serving more than 1 million New Yorkers each year in more than 70 health centers across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of neighborhood outpatient primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, the home health agency, and the MetroPlus Health Plan. of the system, all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is solely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest lives possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected Facebook, Twitter, Instagram And LinkedIn.