On Aug. 22, participants in the Oncology Support Program that had long been hosted at 80 Mary’s Ave., also known as the Herbert H. & Sofia R. Reuner Cancer Support House, received an unwelcome email from program director Ellen Marshall. WMCHealth, parent company of HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley, had decided to close the program “in its current form” and sell the house. One of the social workers involved would continue to serve as a cancer navigator “for HealthAlliance and WMC patients,” and the community was invited to a “sendoff” potluck celebration a week later to reminisce and say fond farewells.

It was the latest in a string of WMCHealth’s “streamlining” efforts since the beginning of its takeover and merger of Kingston’s two hospitals. Moves included the downsizing of inpatient mental healthcare facilities and the July closure of home health care programs that had been serving 89 patients. But before the Aug. 29 date of the potluck had even arrived, the raised voices of cancer survivors and those who love and work with them seemed to be having an effect.

To Jenny Fowler, an Esopus resident and 10-year survivor of Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, the initial email had come as a shock. She had lots of questions and didn’t hesitate to send them to WMC leadership and to local media. “What are the plans to meet the needs of our cancer community moving forward?” she wanted to know. “Are patient voices being included in developing that program? What are the intentions for the sale of the house? Is this in alignment with the intent of its original donors? Is there any legal obligation to continue to use it or profits from its sale in service of our cancer community? I’m very concerned that a narrowly defined navigator position, which was announced in today’s email from center leadership, will not adequately replace the essential social emotional supports that have historically been provided by the center. This will be a great loss of resources for our Mid-Hudson community.”

Marie Beichert grew up at 80 Mary’s Avenue, which has been listed on Zillow for $465,000 since July 28. “Dad bought the house when he got home from World War ll in 1946, and Mom lived there until 2003, when my brother sold it to Benedictine Hospital,” she recalls. “Mom volunteered for the Benedictine Foundation for 57 years, and it was her dream to see the house used by the foundation as a cancer support center.” She’s hoping that, should Reuner House cease to exist as such, something even more robust could emerge to take its place.

Cancer, for the fortunate few who still don’t have intimate experience, brings with it an entirely new, unpleasant and often terrifying series of experiences; once diagnosed with it, life is truly never the same for the patient and for those in their immediate circle. The “Celebrate Life!” newsletter sent out in May by the Oncology Support Program of HealthAlliance Hospital reflects the scope of Reuner House offerings intended to mitigate that reality: individual and group support in a wide range of flavors, healing arts classes, wellness and integrative programs, educational lectures and discussion groups and a library of cancer-related reading material.

Fowler and others felt that the comprehensive Reuner House programming could never be duplicated by the single “patient navigator” approach described in Marshall’s initial email. “I know how much activism and advocacy it takes to create something, and I just see decades of advocacy being just wiped away,” said Fowler in a phone interview last week. “There was never any kind of feedback situation that I saw where we could weigh in on any changes. It was just a note that went out that said that this would probably be the last month that our support groups would be meeting in their current form, and an invitation to a sendoff picnic. What is our care going to look like, and how do we prepare for it? If this was something they were planning to do for months, they could have told us, and we could have been using the social workers to help create a foundation for the future.”

Fowler also feared that future support might be limited solely to WMC patients, leaving members of the wider local cancer community who might be receiving some or all of their care at other places out in the cold, not to mention the caregivers, friends and supporters who aren’t patients. The wonderful thing about Reuner House, she says, has been the scope and inclusivity. “We know that cancer support is stabilizing, not just for the individual, but for the community,” she says. “People should be able to get support locally, whether they decide to go through chemo, radiation, surgery or whatever treatments they’re seeking regardless of where they choose to receive care. Some people opt out. You shouldn't have to be a registered WMC patient to access support. One of the groups that I was part of was called Being Mortal. That group was really fun because it was half people who had no connection to cancer, and half of us were patients, and we read obituaries, wrote our own obituaries. We read texts about different ways that people did burial. We talked about meaningful life.”

It would seem that the powers that be at WMC rapidly came to realize that more information — and more planning — were called for. On Aug. 28, the day before the “farewell potluck” was set to take place, Marshall had an update to share: “After a long conversation with the CEO of HealthAlliance Hospital, it is clear that the administration now recognizes the importance of support groups offered to our community in addition to patients of WMC/HealthAlliance Hospital,” she wrote.

WMC administrators clarified that support programs, including those for the wider community, would continue to happen at Reuner House through the end of 2025, when they would relocate to a dedicated space at the health system’s Broadway campus, the former Kingston Hospital which currently houses advanced medical practices and the Infusion Center. “As always, we want to hear feedback from patients, caregivers, and the community and will be gathering patient and caregiver feedback in the coming weeks to ensure we remain responsive to the community,” they wrote in their update. The navigator position, they say, is in addition to — not in place of — “a combination of licensed social workers, clinical navigators,

and Kingston-based community partnerships.” More information would soon be forthcoming.

Fowler is now cautiously optimistic, although one senses that she’ll be watching closely as things unfold. “I’m really glad to see the administration getting more curious about the program and how it will meet our needs,” she wrote in an email to Kingston Wire on Aug. 29. “I’m hopeful about their efforts to offer continuity of care — including to the broader cancer support community — and to make this transition more transparent to those of us who rely on it. A patient-centered program will include our voices.”