Continuing on from my description of the original four moms that conceived of the organization that eventually became ATN, and from my distaste of the business of business, I’d like to see if I can put into words my vision for ATN going forward.


Since this organization sprang from my experiences and my realization that services for families with emotionally disturbed or attachment-challenged kids are absent, inadequate or ineffective, that is where we must start. But how to explain to folks who are not living with these kids what life is really like? How can you convince social workers, educators, mental health professionals, or for that matter, your own extended family that the charming child before them threatened your life only moments before? Even if you have a photograph of the feces finger painting masterpiece on your wall at home, do they really get it?


Some of the most effective workshops I have done included videotape of raging children or Nancy Ashe’s words coming from her own mouth about the impact of her lack of attachment on her life and her (lack of) relationships. The last time I showed her DVD, a social worker left the room with a deer-in-the-headlights look and said, “You really opened my eyes today.” GOOD. That was the whole idea. And how tragic but "coincidental" that while I was doing a presentation to the Rotary Club and showing a slide about school shooters, the Virginia Tech tragedy was occurring at that very moment. Not coincidental. We can't escape people with serious mental health issues.


So my first order of business for where ATN goes from here is more of that. More workshops, more DVD’s and speakers who communicate the message so effectively and so poignantly that folks who aren’t living it and who will never live it can still get it on some level. We need funds and resources and equipment and avenues to get the word out in a form that folks can’t ignore it. Because the real need here, the absolute bottom line for why ATN exists, is to support families like ours. And we can’t generate services and support if we can’t even get the folks who are supposed to be providing those services to understand what we are saying. We must educate the uneducated in order to generate our own resources. And nobody wants to hear what we are saying, because it isn't a happy, warm and fuzzy message.


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