Member Spotlight
Florence, Mass.
Tapestry Health of Western Massachusetts has begun several exciting new programs recently to expand their services and client base. As part of a new effort to provide appropriate services for men, they have received a three-year grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for a suicide prevention program. Tapestry will train staff on how to recognize early warning signs of depression and suicide, and how to incorporate these screening and assessment tools into their work. The new grant provides $50,000 annually for three years to prevent suicides through counseling, education and referrals.
Tapestry is also working to retain and expand their client base with the help of two new grants, one from the state of Massachusetts, and the second from Bluecross/Blueshield that have allowed them to reconfigure the Women's Health Network (WHN) and Men's Health Project (MHP). These grants will allow Tapestry to reform health care in their community through a new effort to enroll unin-sured patients, retain those clients that are newly insured, and except more forms of insurance. In addition, the new grants will provide for preven-tive health services, including free breast and cervi-cal cancer screening for uninsured women, and colon and prostate cancer screening for men.
Their client base is expanding even more rap-idly with the introduction of a Tapestry Mobile Health Van. The van travels primarily through the low-income sections of Holyoke and Springfield, providing much needed health services to the poor and homeless. The van offers a broad spectrum of services including HIV and other STI testing, pregnancy testing, HPV vaccines, free condoms, health education and counseling services. Launched in March of 2007, the mobile health July/August 2008 5 Member Spotlight: Tapestry Health's Cutting Edge Programs van has already seen about 2,000 patients. People seem really open to HIV tests, even more than walking into a clinic, says Maureen Mchugh.
Additionally, Tapestry has been expanding its scope through a new initiative to better serve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) clients. PATH, the Program for Access to Transgender Health, is Tapestry's agency-wide initiative to better understand and serve LGBT clients. The program will provide trainings for staff, outreach materials that cater to transgender clients, and they are in the planning period for a regional referral and resource network for the transgender community.
Visit tapestryhealth.org for more information.