Nurses at HealthAlliance Hospital are calling on the Westchester Medical Center Health Network to bring mental health and detox programs back to the hospital.

"Nurses are humans too, and we need these services just as much as any of the patients in the community that need them," said Jacquelyn Rutchik, a registered nurse and vice president of the NYSNA Executive Committee at Kingston Hospital.

"These are people down in Valhalla who are making decisions for people in Kingston, and they need to understand what an impact this has on us as a community. And they need to hear our voices and understand that they cannot keep taking away these services."

The nurses say beds were removed on a temporary basis, as the hospital prepared to be a surge site at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. But now, with New York's positive cases showing signs of regression, and no plans to return these programs back to Kingston, community leaders say there is a struggle without these resources.

One of those leaders is David McNamara, the executive director at Samadhi Recovery Community Outreach Center. Samadhi provides help for those struggling with mental health and addiction in Kingston through services like therapy groups, meditation and art therapy. But the need for the group’s services has expanded dramatically since the hospital’s change.

"A lot of what we’ve had to do, we’ve had to increase the number of people who work here, because we’re driving people to Poughkeepsie to the emergency department," McNamara said.

McNamara himself says he'll drive those who need treatment to Poughkeepsie or even Middletown, which is an hour away. But he says HealthAlliance has worked with the group to find alternative accommodations.

"We have a very streamlined way to get people into treatment," McNamara said. "So it cuts days, four to five days, off the process, and they’ve really helped us to facilitate getting people into treatment as quickly as possible."

HealthAlliance hospital's nurses, local labor, and County Executive Pat Ryan say that these services need to be returned to Kingston. The challenges of the pandemic are accentuating that need; this year, Ulster County’s suicide rate has doubled and overdoses are nearly doubled as well.

"The HealthAlliance system, which is part of the Westchester system, has asked New York State for approval to make this permanent," Ryan said. "And that is what I’m pushing, and we’re pushing to say, just cannot happen."