Hidden Homeless

Kevin at thehomelessguy.net is an interesting guy to read. He has posted some interesting links and one in particular caught my eye called Hidden Homeless I guess partly because I see the kind of dental needs the author describes in the article in the high needs kids on our much smaller city. These kids are not necessarily “homeless” in the technical sense. Most of them have homes of some sort but are very transient so never stay in one place long enough to get complete care and never build up a relationship with a dentist. Their parents may never have had much for care and chances are unless the cycle is broken, their children won’t be much better off. In a way I think the lack of dental care is just a symptom of much more urgent problems – like insufficient shelter and food, sometimes addictions in the parents and sometimes just fatigue on the part of parents who have too few resources and too little energy to do a good job of parenting. Most adolescents with poor dental health also have other hygiene issues and I think they just don’t see themselves as someone worth spending time on. That feeling, I suppose becomes a vicious circle and then they will have kids that don’t feel very good about themselves.