Pearl Stanton Medical Treatment Fund

I've written this plea in my head many times over the years. Sometimes the plea was simply to the universe, now the plea is to anyone who finds this GoFundMe and feels compelled to help us get our daughter Pearl the mental health, medical and recovery help that she desperately needs to save her life. Insurance doesn’t cover any of this and we have tried everything else. If you cannot donate, please share our plea anywhere and with anyone, as our personal network is small and limited, and I believe in the power of community.

We are desperate to send our beautiful 17-year-old daughter Pearl to treatment for her mental health and substance abuse disorder, and the recommended residential treatment facilities are $10-16K a month for twelve months and not covered by insurance. No residential treatment beyond 60-90 days is covered by insurance and we already tried this short-term treatment, and it has proven to not be enough for Pearl's needs.

How do we tell such a complicated, personally intimate story while not dishonoring Pearl's struggles, or violating her privacy? How do we convey how much we have tried, and how desperate we are? When your child’s life is at risk you will do anything. This is our attempt. Writing a plea for help with medical expenses before it’s a memorial fund.

This situation is a culmination of many, many years of trying to find the right help for our struggling child: multiple pediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, outpatient programs, ER visits, youth at-risk petitions, law enforcement, courts, tests, inpatient treatment, and recently Wilderness Therapy.

Last year, at the age of 16, we learned Pearl suffers from autism, and clinical depression. She was previously misdiagnosed with ADHD, and on medication that exacerbated her issues. The diagnosis of autism came so late, that all the years of struggling while not being properly supported caused harm to her self-esteem and mental health. Unfortunately, we live in a state that gives 13-year-old children full autonomy, rights and privacy to their medical treatment, and Pearl refused many interventions.

Pearl’s struggles started as a young child. And by 6th grade her frequent truancy exacerbated by inadequate diagnosis and lack of educational resources turned into 100% school refusal. Months ballooned to years of Pearl retreating to her room, refusing to come out and succumbing to hours of sleep to escape the depression. Her torment and our desperation were indescribable.

The pandemic exacerbated an already urgent mental health crisis in our home. Her Mom who was the primary income earner for the family lost her job, and by 2022 Pearl turned to running away and drugs to self-medicate and self-destruct. In her own way, drugs were an easier way for her to commit suicide. She knew fentanyl would or could kill her, she didn’t care.

Sadly, it took drug addiction to unlock new interventions she couldn’t access sooner, but it was a horrible experience for everyone. Either the changes from the pandemic, or lack of staffing turned what was a highly recommended inpatient teen treatment into an institution where chaos, harm and dysfunction ruled night and day. After 70 days there it was clear that Pearl was not healing or getting better and the facility discharged her as needing “a higher level of care” than what they could provide. However, we came to learn very quickly that there was no such thing as a “higher level of care” and their only suggestion rather than bringing her home was Wilderness Therapy, to be followed by a longer-term therapeutic residential placement.

Wilderness Therapy is approximately 12 weeks of treatment and is 100% private pay, with a cost of $4,000 a week. Her parents, Crystal and Nate, put over $55,000 on now maxed out credit cards to start this treatment.

Pearl’s first 6 weeks of Wilderness still failed to show any improvements, but we could tell the caliber of the counseling and program was much higher and more experienced than what we had and we held out hope. By the end of her 8th week, Pearl showed huge growth and improvements, and she stayed this course the remaining 5 weeks at Wilderness. We were elated and felt like this was a miracle in such a dark time, as her grandfather was diagnosed and passed away from terminal cancer. We were so proud of her!

As part of her discharge from Wilderness they recommended placement in a therapeutic boarding school, which cost $10-16K a month and treatment is generally 12 months. However, since Pearl was doing so well, and we didn’t have money to send her, we brought her home and prayed it would be the beginning of healing at home. Unfortunately, once she came home she regressed to a point of a looming medical crisis once more. We paid $6K to educational consultant professionals to get help with placement at Therapeutic Boarding School so we put her in one with the right resources to meet her needs. We are reaching out to anyone who could possibly donate to help cover these massive medical costs to save our daughter's life and give her the possibility of a healthy happy future.

Thank you so much for immersing yourself in our story, and please share, donate or send us blessings. Whatever you can do will help. All of your donations will go toward covering Pearl's treatment.

Thank you,

The Stanton Family