Cleaning up a little

Talked to a senior psyche nurse today. We both agreed that the mental health system in Australia was non-existant.
She'd been trained as a Level 2 psyche nurse over 18 years ago. It had taken her nearly 3 years to get her certification, and she was still proud of it.
Turning to me, she said: "Do you know what the average age of a psyche nurse is in Australia today?" I didn't. "45. -- The young ones are trained in 3-6 months, and once they get a look at what's in store for them, they bail out."
I said I wasn't surprised. We were both disgusted at these 90-day wonders.
John Howard has allocated $1.8 billion over the next 5 years for mental health, I said. We both said in chorus: "That's nothing." and chuckled.

Funny how things come together at times.
Her ex quit his job as a train driver because he saw three men step in front of the train. I mentioned the recent report from CONNEX (indicating 37 men each month step in front of a train in Victoria alone because of problems with the family court system.)
Then she told me she had broken up with him about 18 years ago.

She told the story of going to see a court-recommended mediator who, after about 10-15 minutes closed her notebook and said, "How did you stay with this ******** so long? -- Let's go have some coffee."
Because of her nursing and psyche training, she was flabbergasted. She knew the mediator had done something completely unprofessional and unethical -- clearly taking sides and even labelling one side negatively. All she could do was laugh, "This was what I was paying $200 an hour for?"
We were both disgusted at the mediator's actions.

Garage cleaning

It took me more than a year to be able to look through the stuff in the garage. Most of it was salvaged when I was removed from my house. Up til now when I tried to look through it, my eyes teared uncontrollably, the shaking in my hands soon made my guts unsteady, and I just closed the door again.
There was one box with my name on it, part of the stuff I'd packed getting ready to sell the house. Looking through it, I found a few things I'd written off as gone forever: business card wallet, a CD carrier with software and music, and a pile of old office supplies and paperwork.

Anger Management course

Sitting down in my room with a pile of old paperwork, I found the pamphlet for an 'Anger Management for Women' course I'd tried to get my ex to take.
In all Australia, this was the only class that at least implied it dealt with women and anger management. This was months before she began the effort to extort a settlement. I talked to her about it, describing her recent actions and attitudes as evidence she might find it helpful. I was trying to be tactful, but firm. She said she'd think about it. I let it go at the time.
In a couple of days, she started telling me I had an anger problem. -- So much for that attempt at something constructive.

I was glad to see I hadn't lost the Bach CD. Sitting there listening to strings, I looked over the pamphlet, then decided to take see if the organization had a website now. Their offices are in the Melbourne CBD, but the pamphlet didn't indicate a website.
She shouldn't have been worried about taking the course.
As I looked over the Lifeworks site, I found the same anti-male prejudice as everywhere else in government funded operations.

Sitting there, I thought about the conversation again, and how we had both wondered how much of Howard's $1.8 billion would go to the mirror. She and I had both had a chuckle about the Bracks administration icon being a mirror -- because he spends millions to tell people he is looking into things.
I'd guess about half over the 5 years, based on traditional political spending habits in Australia.