Parents say they’re struggling with their own mental health amid a growing youth mental health crisis

Parents say they’re struggling with their own mental health amid a growing youth mental health crisis

Posted on October 10, 2023

Research released earlier this year shows that parents and teenagers are suffering from anxiety and depression at nearly the same rate. Dr. Christine Crawford, NAMI associate medical director, said she's seeing a rise not only in the number of kids with mental health struggles, but also in the number of parents and caregivers who are trying to help them. Crawford said, "Parents continue to see their kid struggling, and they're like, 'I'm putting in all this time and I'm not seeing the change,' and therefore they feel that it reflects poorly on them as a parent but then also on them as a person ... all these negative thoughts start to afflict them." Crawford said that given the crisis she sees amongst both kids and parents, she uses the beginning of each therapy appointment to simply ask the parent or caregiver how they are doing. "The reality is that kids are spending the majority of their time with their caregiver, not with us as practitioners," Crawford said. "So the work that we are doing as providers is not going to be 100% successful if we know that we're sending our kids home to an environment in which their caregivers are struggling each and every day."