Cancer support home planned

FAYETTEVILLE — A new facility for cancer patients is in the works.

Washington Regional is in the early stages of building a new support home. The city’s subdivision committee will review the plans Thursday.

The development will be on about 4.4 acres east of 378 E. Longview St., according to planning documents. The site is near Brookstone Assisted Living Community and Washington Regional’s Willard Walker Hospice Home.

The new building will replace the home at 1101 N. Woolsey Ave. that opened in 1995. Washington Regional also operates a center at 2706 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.

Cancer support homes are where patients and their families undergoing treatment can stay overnight or attend support groups, according to Washington Regional’s website. The homes offer free health education, cancer screenings and a boutique with wigs, hats, scarves and post-mastectomy supplies such as bras and breast prostheses.

“To better serve the needs of our growing community, we are in the preliminary phase of designing

a new Cancer Support Home. More details about the project will be made available this spring,” Tim Hudson, Washington Regional Medical Foundation executive director, said in an emailed statement.

The timeline for the project will be announced in the spring, spokeswoman Natalie Hardin said.

The new home will be a two-story building for guests with an attached single story space for administrative offices, according to planning documents.

The support home will continue to provide services such as lodging, patient navigation, wig and mastectomy boutique, financial assistance, counseling, survivorship programs, cancer screenings, diagnostic services, support groups and education.

About 1,500 patients, caregivers and community members visited the support homes in recent years, Hardin said in an email. Cancer patients can use a support home regardless of whether they are Washington Regional patients.

Kathey Rhoads, chief operating officer at Highlands Oncology Group, said Highlands patients often travel from other parts of the state for treatments. Radiation treatments are often several days in a row, and patients can stay at a center rather than drive back and forth for each treatment, she said.

Rhoads said she thinks the new facility will be well-utilized. The support groups and other resources the support homes provide are helpful to cancer patients, she said.

Rhoads said she understands the kind of support cancer patients need on both professional and personal levels. She is a cancer patient, and the disease can sometimes make her feel like she’s on her own, she said.

“You just kind of feel like you’re on an island sometimes,” she said.

Karen Willis of Bella Vista-based cancer support group Upbeats said support groups help people because they can gather in a casual setting and talk about whatever is on their mind, whether that be their treatment, how they’re feeling or their social lives. The group meets for lunch once a month, and Willis said it’s helpful to make friends who are going through similar circumstances.