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Many in the Lexington, Kentucky area may already know Staci from her
charity work, or from her profession as an artist. Most, however,
don't know that she has been suffering with mental health issues due
to childhood trauma and the death of her mother, for many years.
Staci has been active in the Humanist/freethought community for
over 6 years. She and her husband have been running the oldest
Humanist group in the state, the Humanist Forum of Central Kentucky,
for the past three years. Since taking over the HFCK, it has grown
from 20 people meeting once a month, to a thriving freethought
community of over a hundred active members. She is one of the
founding and organizing members of the small committee that created
the state's first freethought conference, the Kentucky Freethought
Convention, which has brought people from all the surrounding states
together. Her husband was the public face when the Coalition of
Reason put up a freethought billboard. Their family endured threats
from various sources, but they wanted to do it in order to let others
know that they were not alone. Staci's focus is community. She
spends hours each week caring for others within the freethought
community's needs, and invests her own funds into the group, without
asking for anything in return. Her goal is to be certified as a
Humanist Celebrant this year. Before she can do that, she feels
strongly that she must get her own mental house in order.
27 days before Staci's youngest daughter was born, her mother,
who was terminally ill, stopped taking the medications that were
keeping her alive. Staci was on death watch 70 miles away because she
was unable to travel due to the high risk pregnancy. Her mother was
not expected to survive more than a week, but she continued. On
November 2, Staci's daughter was born. November 5th, the day she was
released from the hospital, Staci's mother passed away. She was
buried three days later.
She has still not dealt with the trauma
of the loss and association with her daughter's birth.
She also has a childhood trauma to work through before she will be able to live her life fully. She has asked that this issue not be disclosed.
Due to these issues and biology, she has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Bipolar II. She has also been suffering from mild agoraphobia, and anxiety attacks. Her psychologist and psychiatrist agree that she needs to be in a residential treatment facility. I have been working with people across the country to get her into one of such facilities. We, with the help of a coordinator from the National Institute of Mental Health, have found a treatment facility that fits all of the criteria for the specific treatment that she needs. This facility is in California, and is a 90 day residential program. Everything was going smoothly.... We found scholarships to cover travel and a couple of short-term family visits, as well as the 10% that her insurance would not cover. Then her insurance failed. They are refusing to cover residential treatment. I have been trying to work with these organizations to come up with enough scholarship money to get her completely covered, but so far am falling very short. $50,000 short.
If we are unable to hit our $50,000 goal, I am still working to get her more scholarships. Hopefully we will still raise enough to fill the gap. If we are unable to get her into this facility, any money raised would go toward medical bills already accumulated that are putting a big financial strain on her family during this very difficult time.
Please consider donating whatever you can to help her get the treatment she needs and share this - especially in the freethought community. Let's show that we can take care of our own!
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