NYC recruiting health coaches to boost wellness of public housing tenants

Mayor Eric Adams’ medical team is ramping up a program to bolster wellness “in the hood” — 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.

Butler Houses in the Morrisania neighborhood of The Bronx is one of the NYCHA buildings being targeted for an expanded health and wellness program.

Richard Harbus

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.

Under the health coaches program, public housing tenants, like those at Marcy Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, would have greater access to a variety of wellness programs.

Thomas Hinton

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.

“Public health should be part of the social fabric of neighborhood life. This program does just that, and it works.”

The program offers public housing tenants screening and workshops to help them better control chronic diseases such as asthma, hypertension and diabetes.

J.C. Rice

Each health coaching program — which will operate from at least January through June of next year — must have, at a minimum, 13 full-time workers, a full-time manager, two full-time supervisors and 10 community workers.

The program is part of the department’s mission to improve medical and wellness outcomes in neighborhoods designated in 2020 as most impacted by COVID-19 and which also suffer from a higher percentage of other socioeconomic inequities — which includes many public housing residents.

In its request for proposals, the department stressed the health coaching program builds on its work “to eliminate health inequities, which are rooted in historical and contemporary injustices and discrimination, including racism.”

“Healthcare and social service systems in New York City have made efforts to improve the health of the most vulnerable populations. However, these systems were not designed to be equitable or to address the complex needs of communities suffering from historical and contemporary injustices, such as poverty, racially segregated housing, disinvestment, and discrimination,” the department said.

Unaddressed medical woes among low-income and minority residents also lead to higher costs for the public because of an “excess number of avoidable emergency room visits and hospitalizations.”

“Health coaching has empowered NYCHA residents (including some with low literacy or low English language proficiency) to acquire the knowledge and skills to better manage their chronic illness and support increased access to health-related services to which they are entitled,” the department said.

Health coaching sessions have been provided to over 1,150 residents living in NYCHA apartments in Harlem, reaching more than 10% of the Health Department’s target population.

Enhanced health screening and providing assistance managing chronic medical conditions would be part of the health coaches’ purview.

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“The community advocacy work has successfully elevated and addressed issues such as food security, public safety, housing repairs, etc. which often form a significant barrier to NYCHA residents struggling to manage chronic disease. To date, over 5,000 NYCHA residents have been engaged in group wellness and advocacy activities since the program began in 2015,” the department said.

Under the program, blood pressure monitoring will occur at least twice monthly at NYCHA Senior Centers/Community Centers and there will be screening for diabetes, hypertension and asthma, among other maladies.

Health coaches are required to enroll a minimum of 150–200 residents at each of the NYCHA complexes in Queens, Brooklyn and The Bronx.

Coaches also are asked to conduct farmers market tours and apply for the department’s “Health Bucks” project to incentivize tenants to purchase and consume more fresh fruits and vegetables.

The wellness push closely follows the health department’s recent launch of a $4 million “vaccine equity” campaign aimed at curbing infections and deaths from the latest coronavirus strains and the flu, predominantly in the city’s poorer communities.