Jessie Stout

Jessie is a 15-year-old high school sophomore who lives in St. Louis City. After many years of play therapy, family therapy, occupational therapy, IEP meetings, doctors appointments, and more since she was about 5 years old, Jessie was diagnosed in August 2024 at 13 years old with level 1 autism. In addition to her autism diagnosis, she also deals with ADHD, severe anxiety and depression, and anorexia. What this means is that while her disabilities are not always visible, they are just below the surface, affecting her everyday life in numerous ways. During some periods, she is doing decently well, while at other times she is suffering from major challenges inside herself or with others. The out-of-pocket costs for helping her have added up.

A quirky teen, Jessie found a small group of wonderful friends when in middle school, and those friendships have been such a joy to watch continue. Sadly, she has not been accepted into a friend group in HS and this made for a very challenging freshman year. Outside of school, Jessie is very creative! She is a great singer and has been in a few school theater productions. She makes kandi bead jewelry and has even been known to upcycle old clothes into more fun and stylish pieces for herself. She is a great baker and has enjoyed having bake sales in the neighborhood. Jessie is very funny and a great storyteller, with great comedic timing.

Since she was young, Jessie has struggled with anxiety and has regularly become overwhelmed in many types of situations (which we now know is called autistic overwhelm/autistic meltdown). After a particularly difficult autumn, in December 2025, Jessie was hospitalized for a week for self-harm and suicidal ideation. She attended an Intensive Outpatient Program for about 9 weeks, but because her anxiety was still strong, the self-harm morphed into anorexia. She was hospitalized in May 2026 for a little over a week and then spent nearly two months in residential eating disorder treatment, followed by outpatient treatment. Her physical health has improved, and with a better course of medications, her mental health has stabilized some. However, she still deals with panic attacks and overwhelm regularly, and she has severe anxiety about the coming school year.

Jessie is fundraising for two main things. First, she is fundraising for a psychiatric service dog. They have much more specific training than an emotional support dog, and it will be trained to interrupt panic attacks and self-harm, provide deep pressure therapy, lead Jessie out of stressful situations when she is too overwhelmed to move, and assure space for her in crowded environments. It would have public access rights and could go nearly everywhere with her, including school. Such a highly trained service dog undergoes 1.5-2 years of training, and costs around $20,000-30,000. Because of the investment, it is also recommended that they have more regular veterinary care and higher quality food.

Second, we are fundraising for treatment that is not covered by insurance. Jessie has many large hypertrophic scars on her forearms and thighs, which means they are very red and look like new wounds, even though they are about half a year old. This is stressful for Jessie, since it is a constant reminder to her and everyone around her of what she has been through. Although they itch and sting daily, the insurance company has denied care for these. It is estimated that out-of-pocket this treatment will cost about $650/treatment and she will need up to 12 treatments. So that would be around $7,800.

Jessie hopes that the service dog and treatment will help her to trust her abilities and be more comfortable at school and in other public places. She often gets overwhelmed and the service dog would help to keep her grounded and assist if her anxiety starts to get worse. The dog would also help at home when she needs to work on homework (which is a big anxiety point) or have conversations about important but sometimes stressful topics. She also hopes that the scar treatment would help her to not stand out as prominently, so that she can feel more confident in herself.

Please donate to Help Hope Live in Jessie’s honor today, and ask your friends and family to give, too! Any amount helps, as does passing it along and asking others to share what they can. All gifts are tax deductible. We hope to host some fundraisers as well, so we will be sure to keep friends and family up to date with details on those. If you have ideas for a fundraiser or can help with something, please contact Jessie’s parents at [email protected]. Thank you for your generous support!