Health in Action Brings Nursing Services to Area Seniors
By Nicole Fogarty
Above: Franklin Hampton, RN, of the Health in Action program, pictured outside the NORC/Vladeck Cares offices.
Henry Street Settlement Senior Services and Betances Health Center have teamed up to launch Health in Action, a new program aimed to assist older adults on the Lower East Side with accessing medical care and resources to promote healthy, active aging.
Hearkening back to the Settlement’s nursing roots, Franklin Hampton, RN, joined the team earlier this month and is already hard at work, moving between the Henry Street Settlement Senior Center and Vladeck Cares NORC on a weekly basis and trying to connect with as many seniors as possible.
Hampton can help local seniors with routine and preventative health matters, as well as help managing chronic illnesses, health education, and more. Aside from simply providing care and connections to Betances services, he hopes to help de-mystify the health care process and encourage people to educate themselves about their own health needs.
“It’s my goal and passion to educate people about what’s going on with their health care to empower them,” says Hampton. “It’s best to know what’s going on, and to follow up with your health—that’s how you stay healthy.”
Hampton is at the Senior Center, 334 Madison Street, on Mondays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and at NORC/Vladeck Cares, 351 Madison Street #1B, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
This collaboration is not the first for Henry Street and Betances—on July 15, 2019, Health Unlimited, Henry Street’s primary health care clinic, became Betances Health Center at Henry Street Settlement, offering expanded health care services (including pediatric care) and the ability to make connections to specialty services at Betances’s main site at 280 Henry Street.
Funding for Health in Action is provided by the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation.
