My name is Kimberly, and I have been taking care of my mentally ill mother for over 25 years. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and became non-compliant with medication that long ago. This is my last Hail Mary to get her help taking care of herself, keeping her medicated, fed and lucid. This will keep her off the streets and out of harms way. Living in a park is no where for a 79 year old woman to be.

She was not allowed to live with me as I had a young son when I first started trying to help her and now due to the voices she hears could be a danger to myself and my husband. We have tried every living arrangement possible, but no one could handle her psychotic episodes. I finally found a nice gentleman, who was a client where I worked and had rental properties, to give her a chance to live in a studio apartment on his property. For many years this worked out great being she was not far from me and I could take care of her from a distance. There was always episodes with her landlords and they would threaten to kick her out. Miraculously she remained there until March of this year. The owner of the apartments passed away. After his passing, the family raised her rent double and not long ago evicted her for non-payment as she could not afford it. She became homeless, living in a park. This situation escalated her mental illness, and I had to have her Baker Acted. After a week in the hospital, she was able to be released to an independent living group home. I was very confident they would put her in an assisted living facility, but apparently, the state had other plans. I am grateful that she is medicated and safe, however, her expenses are all on me since insurance does not cover independent living. She only has Medicare, so any medical expenses are only 80% covered, and her medication is not covered at all. (Psychotic meds are very expensive.)

My husband and I had to close our business due to several hurricanes in southwest Florida. We have suffered huge financial losses and continue to struggle to this day to get our finances back on track and our credit score back to where it was. The added stress and expense of my mother’s mental illness has not help the situation, making life so much more stressful than it already was. I also had major ankle surgery and have been learning how to walk all over again for over a year. This has also added thousands in medical bills for me.

I am asking for help at the advice of my wonderful father, who, even though divorced from my mother for over 45 years, is always willing to help her. He has his own battles with cancer and is on a fixed income as well. Life seemed to get bad for the ones closest to me all at one time.

I am in a very vulnerable situation and reaching out for any assistance with the growing number of expenses taking care of my mother while trying to recover myself.

Thank you in advance!