The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) have launched a new partnership aimed at addressing chronic disease disparities in Hispanic communities. As a first step in their collaboration, the two organisations will co-host a webinar highlighting how lifestyle medicine interventions are improving health outcomes for patients from Hispanic backgrounds.

The free webinar, titled "Equipping Nurses with Lifestyle Medicine Tools to Transform Health Outcomes for Hispanic Patients through Culturally Responsive Care," will be held at 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday, 1 October. The session invites participation from nurses of Hispanic heritage as well as those serving Latino communities who are encouraged to register.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, in 2020 Hispanics were 1.5 times more likely than non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes, while in 2022 Hispanic adults were 60% more likely to be diagnosed with the disease. Providing race-concordant care and ensuring access to bilingual clinicians have played a crucial role in enabling Spanish-speaking patients to navigate resources and address lifestyle factors linked to these health disparities.

Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that focuses on modifiable risk factors, using evidence-based therapeutic interventions to treat the whole person. ACLM equips clinicians to identify and tackle the root causes of disease, helping patients to adopt and sustain healthier behaviours to protect their wellbeing and combat chronic illness. Centred around six interconnected pillars, with optimal nutrition as a core component, lifestyle medicine is clinically proven to treat, prevent, and even reverse chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

"With nearly 3,200 NAHN members and 46 chapters across the nation, our nurses are committed to learn more about food as medicine and the other pillars of lifestyle medicine to improve the health of the patients and communities we serve," said NAHN President, Veronica Vital, PhD, MLS, RN. "Lifestyle medicine has the potential to transform the way clinicians deliver care, which is why it's so important that providers are equipped with the knowledge and tools to prescribe interventions that are not only effective, but also culturally meaningful and appropriate."

Partnerships with organisations such as NAHN – a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring high-quality healthcare for Hispanic populations – further ACLM's efforts to expand access to lifestyle medicine for all communities.

ACLM's HEAL (Health Equity Achieved through Lifestyle Medicine) Initiative provides scholarships to underrepresented clinicians seeking training and certification in lifestyle medicine. The upcoming 1 October webinar will feature 2025 HEAL Initiative scholar Claudia C. Guillen, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, who will present her work on delivering a plant-based nutrition and chronic disease prevention programme to underserved Latino communities. She will be joined by NAHN member and Clinical Associate Professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, Karla Rodriguez, DNP, RN, CNE, DipACLM, NC-BC, who will share evidence-based strategies for incorporating lifestyle medicine into teaching and research.

Through the HEAL Initiative and its Community Engaged Lifestyle Medicine (CELM) framework, ACLM works alongside strategic partners to address health disparities related to lifestyle-driven chronic diseases. Cultural responsiveness is a core element of CELM's approach. NAHN's commitment to advancing bilingual and bicultural nursing professionals complements research showing that race-concordant care improves healthcare experiences for historically marginalised communities and helps overcome language barriers.

"ACLM's vision is a nation wherein lifestyle medicine is the foundation of health and all healthcare--with all people, in all places having the benefit of root cause treatment as the standard of care," said ACLM CEO Susan Benigas. "We cannot, as an organization, do this alone. Our partnership with NAHN and other organizations working to ensure that all patients have access to clinicians trained to help guide them in eradicating the root causes of disease are vital. Lifestyle medicine's interprofessional care team, with nurses and nurse practitioners being essential team members, is the future of a transformed and sustainable system of healthcare delivery."

source:newsreleases.co.uk