Press Releases

Bridge to Home Program Featured in New Episode of NYC Health + Hospitals Podcast The Remedy

Bridge to Home supports patients with severe mental illness by providing stable housing with onsite clinical and behavioral health care to ensure they can continue their recovery and have a roadmap towards long-term stability

Mar 24, 2026

NYC Health + Hospitals today released a new episode of its podcast, The Remedy, featuring leaders and health care providers from the nation’s largest municipal health care system. Season 3 Episode 4: Redefining Mental Health Support with Bridge to Home covers how the first-of-its-kind transitional housing initiative supports patients with severe mental illness by providing a stable, home-like environment with onsite clinical and behavioral health care to ensure they can continue their recovery and have a roadmap towards long-term stability. In this episode, host Dr. Michael Shen is joined by Bridge to Home Site Director Melissa Shoupe, Assistant Director of Nursing Dr. Nzinga Zennia, and Medical Director and Psychiatrist Dr. Chris Clayton to discuss how the support they provide Bridge to Home guests closes the revolving door between hospitals and the streets and helps them prepare to live in a permanent home of their own. Season 3 Episode 4: Redefining Mental Health Support with Bridge to Home is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio and other podcast platforms.

“Bridge to Home is the perfect name for this program – it bridges what’s always been a huge gap in the city’s mental health landscape, providing new Yorkers with the support they need to transition safely back to community living,” The Remedy Host Michael Shen, MD. “We’ve built the bridge. The compassionate, dedicated care provided by the program leaders featured in this episode help guide our patients across it.”

“Guests at Bridge to Home are provided with appropriate step-down care that helps make permanent housing possible,” said Bridge to Home Site Director Melissa Shoupe. “The transitional period between acute hospitalization and long-term stability differs for each individual, and we have the flexibility to accommodate a diversity of needs. Personalized, accessible care in the community is an essential tool for successful housing.”

“Recovery is not merely the clinical absence of symptoms or the stabilization of a crisis —it is the restoration of a meaningful, dignified life,” said Bridge to Home Assistant Director of Nursing Dr. Nzinga Zennia. “When a resident is stable, supported, and housed, they do not just exist, they contribute. They become part of the social and economic fabric that makes our neighborhoods thrive. At Bridge to Home we are not just healing individuals; we are strengthening the soul of the city.”

“The moment our guests leave the hospital, it’s their choice whether or not to come into my office,” said Bridge to Home Medical Director and Psychiatrist Dr. Chris Clayton. “We aim to be open for any opportunity for care — whether talking in the elevator, sharing a coffee, connecting during community meeting, or playing basketball in the park. These casual encounters humanize our guests’ relationship with the care team and lay the groundwork for coming into clinic.”

NYC Health + Hospitals’ role as a public hospital system and the major safety net health care system for New York City offers a singular voice that no other health care podcast can. It shows how the public health care system provides care for all patients, regardless of their ability to pay; offers exciting ways to support patients, including new models of care to address behavioral health needs; and responds to the challenges that face New York City, including homelessness and the climate crisis. The host and guests are all employees of NYC Health + Hospitals with a special perspective on the work they do for patients.

Previous episodes of The Remedy cover the following topics:

Season 3

• Season 3 Episode 1: Healing Through Art: Creative Therapies at Rikers Island covers NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services’ Creative Arts Therapy program, the oldest and largest jail-based arts therapy program in the nation.
• Season 3 Episode 2: Inside NYC’s Award-Winning Nursing Homes highlights the often-overlooked world of post-acute care.
• Season 3 Episode 3: Behind the Scenes at the Simulation Center covers how health care teams prepare for trauma, cardiac arrest, opioid overdose, and other life-and-death emergencies.

Season 2

• Season 2 Episode 1: Community Health Workers covers these workers’ vital role in bridging the gap between medical care and social needs like housing, food, and transportation. With over 250 community health workers, NYC Health + Hospitals has built one of the largest programs in the nation.
• Season 2 Episode 2: How NYC Care Helps Uninsured New Yorkers highlights how the program provides health care to low-income and uninsured New Yorkers — regardless of immigration status or ability to pay.
• Season 2 Episode 3: Treating Violence covers the critical work the public health system’s Hospital Violence Interruption programs (HVIP) do to prevent violence, save lives, and heal communities.
• Season 2 Episode 4: The New Ellis Island highlights the historic work of NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arrival Center, a central intake facility for all newly arriving asylum seekers run by NYC Health + Hospitals’ Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) program.
• Season 2 Episode 5: Street Medicine in NYC covers the efforts of social workers the public health system’s Street Health Outreach + Wellness (SHOW) program, a street medicine program that provides medical care, behavioral health, and social services to New Yorkers who are experiencing homelessness or historically disconnected from care.
• Season 2 Episode 6: How AI Will Transform Healthcare in NYC covers how the public health system is using artificial intelligence to enhance patient care, improve efficiency, and support its workforce.
• Season 2 Episode 7: No Wrong Door: Addiction Care in NYC covers how NYC Health + Hospitals is treating substance use disorder with a comprehensive approach—whether someone walks into an emergency room, seeks help at a methadone clinic, or connects through community outreach.

Season 1

• Season 1 Episode 1: The Power of Primary Care features three primary care doctors on how working with their patients informs their roles in leadership at NYC Health + Hospitals.
• Season 1 Episode 2: Food is Medicine recognizes that plant-based eating is powerful medicine – it can lower high blood pressure and bring type 2 diabetes into remission – and considers how hospitals can help their patients pursue a plant-based diet.
• Season 1 Episode 3: Ready for the Next Pandemic considers how New York City’s public hospital system has consistently answered the challenge of Ebola, COVID-19, and mpox all while staying ahead of the latest health crisis.
• Season 1 Episode 4: Women’s Health considers how New York City’s public hospital system is expanding access to women’s health care in a time when many women across the country are facing restricted access to care.
• Season 1 Episode 5: Caring for the Newest New Yorkers covers how the staff at NYC Health + Hospitals are rising to the challenge of caring for the over 175,000 asylum seekers who have come to our city since spring 2022.
• Season 1 Episode 6: Caring for Homeless Patients covers how NYC Health + Hospitals serves its over 70,000 patients who are experiencing homelessness.
• Season 1 Episode 7: Helping Healers Heal covers how NYC Health + Hospitals supports the mental health of its more than 40,000 health care workers.

###

MEDIA CONTACT: Press Office

#063-26

About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlusHealth —all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 46,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.