My mom and her friend Pam started teaching the "Family - to - Family" class again. The class is one of the classes that NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness www.namiut.org) offers. The class is for friends, family members or anyone who wants to learn more about mental illness and how to cope with a friend or family member's illness. It is an awesome 12 week class and it's my third time taking the class (each time my mom and Pam were the teachers). Because of budget cuts the Utah State government is cutting back in all departments. Unfortunately, the mental health and substance abuse programs are being hit the hardest. The Utah State Governor’s budget recommends that 70% of the cuts from the Department of Human Services come from the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. Furthermore, the Legislature is requesting much deeper cuts -- a 15% cut from each Department. (the last two sentences were from the NAMI Utah webpage). Because of what Steve is going through right now I really don't want them to cut as much as they are proposing. The people who can't get help through the State programs will have to get help other ways, and most of them will probably end up in prisons or homeless or even dead. I really wish people would treat mental illness the same as they do with breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. That's my wish for this world - no more stigma when it comes to mental illness and that it would be more accessible to get help when it''s needed.

The saga continues

Steve is still not home. He will be gone for over a month by the time he comes home. I really miss him and hope he is home soon. I've seen very little of my step son since Steve went into the hospital. Since I'm only a step parent I have no rights. Luckily Steve's ex wife was nice enough to let my in-laws have Hunter for about three hours on January 3rd. She really didn't have to do that and I was very grateful that she did. I'm trying really hard to make sure things stay civil between Steve and his ex. I really would hate to see Hunter turn out the way my cousin did. Her mom used her to get back at her dad and now I think she's a little bitter towards her dad and mom. Parents should NEVER use their child to punish their ex-spouse. The child has nothing to do with the reason for the divorce and so they should not be involved with it in any way.