Tapestry Health Named Key Community Partner in Drug Use, Harm Reduction Study
SPRINGFIELD — Tapestry Health, a leading provider of harm reduction, sexual and reproductive health, and WIC services, has been named a key community partner in a new $12 million, five-year research initiative led by Brown University and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The multi-state study will analyze trends in drug use and barriers to care across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont, with the goal of strengthening access to treatment, prevention, and support for people who use drugs.
The project, which brings together researchers from Brown University, the University of California San Diego, the University of Vermont, and community partners across New England, seeks to understand how new and existing programs can reduce overdose deaths and transmission of HIV and hepatitis C, while improving overall well-being among people who use drugs.
“At a time when evidence-based harm reduction is under scrutiny and communities are confronting the human toll of overdose, HIV, and hepatitis C, this study could not come at a more critical moment,” said Mavis Nimoh, CEO of Tapestry Health.
“Tapestry Health is proud to join Brown University and our regional partners in this groundbreaking initiative that centers the health, dignity, and lived and living experience of people who use drugs. For over 50 years, Tapestry has stood at the intersection of compassion and science, providing syringe access, overdose prevention, HIV and hepatitis C testing, and holistic care across Western Massachusetts.
“Our participation in this project reinforces what we know to be true: harm reduction saves lives, connects people to care, and is one of the most effective public health strategies of our time. But it also affirms that the voices and data from our communities in Western Massachusetts, often overlooked in statewide and national policy discussions, deserve to inform the future of prevention and treatment strategies.
“This moment demands that we act not with fear, but with fidelity to what works,” Nimoh continued. “Across the country, federal harm reduction strategies face risk from funding uncertainty to ideological resistance, even as evidence continues to show their profound impact on saving lives. Through this collaboration, we have an opportunity to not only strengthen programs locally and nationally, but to also show unequivocally that harm reduction is healthcare.”
Led by Brown University’s School of Public Health, the study will recruit 1,200 participants from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont and follow them for up to five years. Researchers will examine drug use trends, barriers to HIV and HCV care, the impact of overdose prevention initiatives, and how conditions such as mental health and chronic disease influence well-being.
Tapestry Health will serve as a primary community partner in Western Mass., helping connect researchers with participants and providing insight into regional needs, challenges, and opportunities. Other key community partners include Community Care Alliance in Woonsocket, R.I., and Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform in Burlington, Vt.