Photo credit: Michael Appleton
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H) announced this week the expansion of groundbreaking lifestyle medicine services at six public health care sites across New York City — the most comprehensive expansion of lifestyle medicine programming in the U.S. Modeled off the popular and successful Plant-Based Lifestyle Medicine Program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, the new expansion will provide patients living with chronic disease the tools to make healthy lifestyle changes, included providing them access to plant-based diet resources. The program will expand to serve qualifying NYC Health + Hospitals adult patients at Jacobi, Lincoln, Woodhull, Kings County, and Elmhurst hospitals, as well as Gotham Health, Vanderbilt. The program expansion will be implemented over the coming year.
“Today, New York City is again leading the way with the most comprehensive expansion of lifestyle medicine programming in the nation,” said Mayor Adams. “This is personal to me — a plant-based lifestyle helped save my life, and I’m thrilled that New Yorkers in every zip code will have access to this critical programming. Together, we will stop feeding the health care crisis and ensure all New Yorkers can access the healthy lifestyle they deserve.”
“This expanded programming won’t only touch the lives of the patients served but will extend to the families and communities of every person served,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. “That mom with type 2 diabetes or that dad with high cholesterol now has new tools to reclaim their health through everyday choices to eat, manage stress, and sleep better, as well as find enhanced social support. These programs can change individual lives by treating, preventing, and even reversing common chronic diseases, but will also ripple through to families and communities of those at risk of or living with a chronic disease. I want to thank Dr. McMacken, Dr. Katz, and all the staff doing this cutting-edge work and making a difference in the lives of so many New Yorkers.”
“Even through the pandemic, heart disease remains the leading killer of New Yorkers, with diabetes not too far behind,” said Senior Advisor for Public Health and Incoming Commissioner of Health Dr. Ashwin Vasan. “To move the needle, we will need to invest in both upstream policy reforms and downstream care and supports. Increasing access to dietitians, health coaches, and physicians through innovative approaches, like the Lifestyle Medicine Program, will help more New Yorkers with cardio-metabolic diseases live longer, healthier lives.,. I applaud Mayor Adams and our colleagues at NYC Health + Hospitals for their leadership and for taking a holistic approach to supporting the health of our communities.”
In 2019, with the advocacy of then-Brooklyn Borough President Adams, the Bellevue Plant-Based Lifestyle Medicine Program — among the first of its kind in a safety-net health care setting — was launched. The program takes an interdisciplinary approach to reduce patients’ cardiometabolic risk, where a team of physicians, dietitians, and health coaches support patients in making evidence-based lifestyle changes, including adopting a healthy plant-based diet, increasing physical activity, improving sleep habits, reducing stress, avoiding risky substances, and providing social support. The program has received national attention and there has been a high demand for services, including self-referrals from more than 850 New York City residents.
Each of the sites that will be receiving the expanded lifestyle medicine services will be equipped with a full-time dietitian and health coach, as well as physician teams. Participants will be referred by their health care providers or can self-refer. Eligibility criteria for participants include heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and/or health concerns related to obesity.
Patients who enroll in one of the programs will receive a full medical evaluation by a team physician, with special attention to current lifestyle behaviors and social needs. They will also meet individually with a dietitian and a health coach and will participate in group education on topics including nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress reduction, and other lifestyle pillars. The lifestyle medicine team will individualize the behavior change approach for each patient, considering cultural traditions, socioeconomic circumstances, family situations, and other key factors.
In addition to expanding access to lifestyle medicine services, NYC Health + Hospitals will partner with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine to help provide additional lifestyle medicine training to care teams, as well as with Plant-Powered Metro New York to offer cooking demonstrations to patients at the Kings County Hospital site.
NYC Health + Hospitals’ expansion of lifestyle medicine services builds on its commitment to put healthy eating and other beneficial lifestyle habits at the forefront of patients’ care. In 2019, the system launched Meatless Mondays at all 11 of its acute care hospitals. The program was launched in an effort to provide a broader range of healthy, appealing meal options to inpatients and introduce them to the benefits of plant-based nutrition so that they could make important lifestyle decisions that would lead to living their healthiest lives.
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