Help Kelly Recover From Burnout

In the nearly ten years since I met my beloved friend Kelly, I have watched her consistently do some of the most emotionally, mentally and physically demanding work I am aware of. While I have seen Kelly grow tremendously through her experiences and have been awed by her courage in taking on big challenges and meeting profound needs in her communities, I have never witnessed her do this work from a place of reasonable rest, support, financial security, and physical and holistic health.

After 12 years working professionally as a social worker, Kelly’s body, mind and spirit are all aligned in expressing that she needs to take a pause, reset, and recover from burnout.

Our goal is to raise $15,000 to help Kelly pay her bills while she takes a couple of months to rest and plan the next chapter of her life.

From her start in HIV and Hepatitis C work to her focus over the last several years on providing harm reduction services for people who use drugs, Kelly has treated some of the most marginalized, misunderstood and vilified people in our society with the care, compassion, understanding, and genuine interest that any human being deserves.

Kelly’s work has kept so many people from contracting preventable illnesses, and has empowered families and communities to prevent the deaths of countless loved and needed people, preserving and improving the lives of generations in the 7,000 square miles of rural Northern New Mexico where she and her colleagues provide mobile services. Far beyond the duties one might imagine when they hear the words "mobile syringe exchange," Kelly has fed her clients when they had no food, clothed them when they were cold, and treated them when they were wounded and couldn't access other care.

But Kelly’s work has never paid a livable wage, nor has it ever provided for meaningful opportunities for rest and replenishment. On a recent phone call, Kelly told me, “I haven’t felt anything but exhaustion for years.”

In 2023, after years of feeling increasingly unwell, Kelly was diagnosed with life-threateningly severe sleep apnea. A year ago, Kelly gained the use of a CPAP machine and an oxygen compressor, which are both significant steps forward in her health and enormous added expenses. Doctors and fellow sleep apnea sufferers have told Kelly that it takes, on average, 2 full years to meaningfully recover from the long-term effects of sleep apnea. But progress in Kelly’s journey of recovery from chronic oxygen depletion has been stunted by the ongoing demands of her work, and by constant financial stress stemming from more than a decade of inadequate wages further diminished by student loans, and now compounded by her recent medical debts.

Amid public health crises, personal health crises, family crises and more, Kelly has continued working for her communities, never losing sight of the needs of those around her.

Unfortunately, she is now at her breaking point. Continuing in this way is destroying her physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and financial health. Kelly’s physicians, psychiatrists, therapists, colleagues, friends, and partners all agree that Kelly needs an opportunity to recover and reroute into a life path that is humane and sustainable.

It's time for us to come together to return to Kelly the kind of support she has always shown to us. If we work together, I know we can help Kelly navigate this necessary transition safely.

I ask from the bottom of my heart that you join me in supporting this person whom I love so much, whose brilliantly full humanity has been a gateway for me in discovering the realness and dignity of others’ lives as well as my own.

We are very aware that this is a time when support is needed for many worthy and urgent causes. Your generosity means so much to us, and anything you are able to contribute helps enormously.