Healthy Hearts
Communities
Program
We are Striving to Build Happy, Safe Strong, Informed Healthy, Equitable Resilient, Inclusive Heart Healthy Communities.
Hypertension remains a primary health concern in the US, affecting over 45% of the adult population. Yet, only 24% of adults have their hypertension under control.
Our goal is to help bridge the gap in health education and other follow-up support that could significantly improve patients’ overall well-being. The primary target of this initiative is neighborhoods with predominantly Black communities in Boston.
The Heart of a Giant Foundation, HGF, seeks to improve health outcomes and prevent chronic heart diseases.
The Heart Healthy Communities (2HC) Program is an initiative to help individuals and families manage and prevent hypertension. We aim to achieve this through a culturally responsive, community-based, and technology-based approach, provides comprehensive healthcare support, health education, and coaching.
Heart of a Giant
Clinical support to optimize the health needs and augment the care needs of participants; using multiple HIPAA-compliant channels to communicate, including home visits, phone, or Web. Key activities include:
- Health screenings and health education
- Self biometric-measurements at home
- Care coordination and referrals
Physical and mental health are equally important in maintaining a healthy blood pressure. Leveraging available culturally responsive mental health screening tools, licenced social workers support individuals and families in managing their condition through:
- Complementary psychotherapy sessions
- Individual and group counseling
- Heart-healthy share-backs
Eating a healthy diet and exercising often can help maintain a healthy weight, improve physical endurance and muscular strength, improve mood, and control the blood pressure to avoid hypertension and other heart diseases. The program provides the following:
- Tailored Heart-healthy diet and eating plan
- Weekly cooking classes in person or online
- A semi-supervised exercise training program
A heart healthy community is a supportive environment that supports a sense of belonging and unity. The program offers a peer network and community built around selected group activities, hobbies, interests, and cultures:
- In-person and remote support groups
- Community building
- Heart Healthy workshops