Real Life Neglect Experience

My friend, the at-risk youth mentor, shared with me about a client he was working with. This is what he shared with me about the client:

"You wouldn’t think it when looking at him, but he is an Eagle Scout. His rough exterior and apparent lack of ambition hide his true talent. He knows a lot about computers. In fact, comparatively speaking, he is one of the smartest kids that have gone through our program. However, his rough exterior and apparent lack of ambition are not an outward manifestation of social deviancy, but rather they seem to be a direct result of parental neglect. His mother committed suicide when he was young, and he scarcely knows his father, who lives only about 45 minutes north of where our client currently resides. He entered our program about one month ago. He turned to drug abuse, probably to cope with his mother’s death, at a young age. Where is his father?

Neglect—it must stop."