Mayor Eric Adams’ medical team is ramping up a program to bolster wellness in public housing by recruiting “health coaches” to work with residents inside the city’s major public housing projects.
The Health Department is accepting bids to fund the expansion of the Health Advocacy Partnership program in the New York City Housing Authority-run Marcy Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Butler Houses in the Morrisania neighborhood of The Bronx and the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, Queens.
The program offers tenants screening and workshops to help them better control chronic diseases such as asthma, hypertension, diabetes, and provides assistance with stress management and smoking cessation.
The program also addresses tenants’ mental health issues including depression, health officials said.
Additionally, health coaches will offer classes to improve nutrition as well as “shape-up” fitness classes, power walks and biking groups.
The department, with $2.95 million in grants available through its fundraising arm, the Fund for Public Health, is soliciting bids to hire three contractors to serve each of the NYCHA projects.
The health coaching program was initially started on a trial basis at NYCHA housing complexes in Harlem and East Harlem under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the early findings there warrant replication elsewhere, the department said.
Among the Harlem findings:
- Participants who self-reported good to excellent general health increased by 40%, from 55% to 78%.
- Among diabetic participants, the number with self-reported controlled diabetes increased by 46%, from 50% to 77%.
- For participants with hypertension, the number with controlled blood pressure increased by 19%, from 60% to 71%.
- Residents who screened positive for moderate, moderately severe, or severe depression decreased by 40%, from 15% to 9%.
“Connecting with New Yorkers in their own communities is a proven way to work together to manage chronic health conditions. The addition of Community Health Workers in other communities will build on the results we already see in Harlem including improved general health of participants increasing from 55% to 78% and severe depression decreasing from 15% to 9%,” the Health Department said in a statement.
