A path forward for Jennifer - she needs our help.

Jennifer’s life changed dramatically when she sustained crime-related injuries, for which she was unable to attain justice, nearly five years ago. In the immediate aftermath, she was able to work but then became disabled by PTSD and Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) - a life-limiting condition that causes difficulty in walking, speaking, visual and cognitive disturbance, and coordination problems between the right and left parts of the brain. She no longer lives to anywhere near her former capacity. After four years of disability and absence from the work she loved, she is now extremely vulnerable and facing housing instability in NYC.

Given the impossible task of finding and moving into a new apartment in a short amount of time with significant health challenges, Jennifer is now facing eviction and must go to housing court to ask for more time. But her needs to go beyond just legal support.

The medical costs of her chronic illness have taken their toll on Jennifer’s finances. She will also have significant treatment costs in the future. One estimate places the lifetime cost of FND treatment at more than $100,000. Further, FND has proven difficult to treat in NYC and Jennifer is on the waitlist for coordinated team care at the FND Unit at MGH Hospital in Boston, having been turned down by the Mayo Clinic for insurance reasons.

FND can be progressive, and eighteen months ago, Jennifer developed seizures which are not well treated by medication. While she thought the ensuing time would be a swift period for rehabilitation, her symptoms worsened and she spent periods of time home bound, receiving visiting nurse services, as well as specialty PT, OT, and speech therapy. Jennifer was hospitalized for the fourth time in as many years just this past September and continues to require intensive rehabilitative therapies to regain or maintain function.

Wanting to turn adversity into service, Jennifer had wanted to write a book or fundraise generally to raise awareness of FND, which affects between 4 and 12 of every 100,000 persons. She he had fought through symptoms to volunteer one hour a week online for six months, had joined a creative writing group, was attending virtual workshops at a local gallery, and was making plans to expand her volunteer work to a community garden, a hospital patient family advisory committee, or at the New Museum’s technology incubator.

She never thought she would have to ask for help for herself. But the housing crisis has made clear that she is unable to wage the fight on her own anymore, and at this point has limited resources to draw from and has exhausted what social benefits exist.

We are humbly asking those who know Jennifer, or who are touched by her story in anyway, to invest in her recovery. She deserves to heal. Any donations, however small, will be used towards direct cost of living expenses, moving expense, legal fees, and medical costs. Jennifer believes that she may be better served by returning to her family home, and transferring her FND care to Stanford, as this recent hardship and risk of homelessness has made her realize that she cannot live independently in NYC anymore. To do even that will take support of others.

If you know Jennifer, you know that she committed many years to educating the next generation of architects, was quick to try to connect like minded individuals or host a dinner party, and had a love of travel, writing, and designing, which her conditions have kept her from. Please help Jennifer find a path forward.