This report is part of News4 and Telemundo 44’s Fighting Fentanyl series. Go here for full coverage.
Elena Suarez wants people to know her teenage daughter Colette the way she remembers her. She was playful and “brought out the silliness” in her mom. Colette, who attended Winston Churchill High School, had the world at her feet.
But her life took a terrifying turn on a spring break trip to Brazil, where her mom says she was sexually assaulted.
Suarez said her daughter began to use cocaine to numb the pain.
“The addiction was fast and hard,” Suarez said. She suspects the cocaine her daughter took was laced with fentanyl.
Over the next year, Colette overdosed three times. After the last time, she promised her mother it would be her last.
“Mama, I love you. I want to live,” she told her mother.
“That was one of the happiest moments of my life,” Suarez recalled.
That happiness was short-lived.
“She’s walking out the door and all of a sudden she turns around, she goes, ‘Mama, you focus too much on me. Focus on yourself. Just be happy.’ She walked away. And that was the last time I saw my child,” Suarez said.
Eight days later, Colette died of fentanyl poisoning at age 19.
Sadly, stories like Colette’s are not uncommon. As the News4 I-Team investigated the fentanyl crisis among young people in the D.C. area, we learned that parents are coping not only with the heartbreak of trying to rescue their kids but with the financial toll too.
A Montgomery County mother lost her business as she sought treatment for her teen son
In Silver Spring, an entrepreneur and mother struggled to keep her business afloat as her son needed treatment because he was using fentanyl. Ana found herself trying to get her son, Steve, to treatment at the same time that she cared for the customers of her cleaning business. Eventually, she had to make a choice.
“I was alone with my son in the hospital. I didn’t have anyone to help me with the company. So, I went bankrupt,” she said in Spanish.
“I had to stop working because of a crisis. In other words, it’s difficult, because I couldn’t work, financially contribute, because I was taking care of my son,” she added. “So, you lose a lot.”
Ana isn’t alone in facing financial hardship as she tried to get her child the help he needed, said Jonathan Henriquez, a program manager with the Montgomery County organization Identity.
“We’ve actually even seen cases where the family has had to sell their home because of their child’s fentanyl use,” he said.
Identity provides afterschool resources on everything from mental health to substance use for underserved youth age 7 to 25. They also connect families with food, clothing and rental assistance as young family members struggle with drug use.
“It’s a huge financial burden,” Henriquez said.
What treatment for fentanyl use can cost and how to get help
As many parents find out, getting help for a child dealing with substance use disorder can be costly.
According to the American Addiction Centers, outpatient drug detox programs range from $250 to $800 per day. Inpatient rehab programs are even more expensive, ranging from $5,000 to $80,000 per month.
Then there are medication costs. Depending on the drug, they can typically cost a few thousand dollars per month.
No matter where you live and no matter your financial situation, there are resources to help pay for your child’s substance use treatment.
Many programs take Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program, private insurance and TRICARE.
If you don’t have insurance or treatment is too expensive, there are ways to get help:
- Many programs offer a sliding-fee scale, which lets someone pay based on what they make
- Ask about grants, scholarships and charity care and if it will cover the entire time of a child’s treatment or if some of the money needs to be paid back.
- Some facilities also offer payment plans
If you have insurance:
- First, call the number on the back of your insurance card to ask to what type of treatment is covered.
- Ask how much your co-pay will be, how many appointments or days of treatment are covered per year and if medications also are covered
“There are more and more resources because the epidemic is so large now,” said Suarez, who lost her daughter to fentanyl poisoning.
She joined a support group of other mothers who lost children, sharing their stories and trying to turn their pain into purpose.
“I was blessed that my daughter’s last wish for me was that she said, ‘Be happy.’ Because that is my guiding light, if you will. I do my best to be happy,” she said.
If you need help for a young person struggling with fentanyl use in the D.C. area, many resources are available. Go here for information on how to find help.
Reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Ambar Rodriguez, shot by Steve Jones and Lance Ing, and edited by Lance Ing
