On August 28, 2024, the United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Mental Health and Well-Being of Parents, highlighting the urgent need to better support parents, caregivers, and families.

Here are few facts that stood out to me from the advisory:

• There are approximately 63 million parents living with children under the age of 18 in the United States, and there are millions of additional caregivers who hold the primary responsibility for caring for children. This population experiences a range of unique stressors that come with raising children; including common demands of parenting, financial strain and economic instability, time demands, concerns about children’s health and safety, parental isolation and loneliness, difficulty managing technology and social media, and cultural pressures.
• Children of parents with mental health conditions may face heightened risks, including symptoms of depression and anxiety. One study found that children of a primary caregiver who reported poor mental health were 4 times more likely to have poor general health (5.1% vs 1.3% and 2 times more likely to have mental, behavioral, or developmental disorders (41.8% vs 21.0%). Additionally, these children are prone to cognitive, academic, and interpersonal struggles.
• The mental health conditions of parents can pose greater risks for children when combined with additional risk factors like poverty, exposure to violence, and marital conflict, but they can be mitigated by protective factors like social support networks and positive parenting behaviors as well.
• Parental Isolation and Loneliness: Social isolation and lack of social support can lead to heightened stress. In a 2021 survey, approximately 65% of parents and guardians, and 77% of single parents in particular, experienced loneliness, compared to 55% of non-parents. Furthermore, 42% of parents who experienced loneliness always felt left out compared to 24% of non-parents who experienced loneliness.
• Technology and Social Media: Nearly 70% of parents say parenting is now more difficult than it was 20 years ago, with children’s use of technology and social media as the top two cited reasons. As technological and economic forces have reshaped the world at a rapid pace, parents may find it more difficult to prepare children for a future that is harder to anticipate. Further, a modern practice of time-intensive parenting and contemporary expectations around childhood achievement may contribute further to the stressors faced by parents.
• Recent data from 2021-2022 indicate that among parents, 23.9% (or 20.3 million) had any mental illness and 5.7% (or 4.8 million) of parents had a serious mental illness.

• Join my 8 week coaching program, The Conscious Parent Accelerator Program , which includes 1:1 sessions with me and a group coaching call every week. Read other parents’ testimonials click here
• Book a call with me today – click here
• Watch my Conscious Parenting Masterclass: From Angry & Exhausted to Calm & Connected: for today click here
• Find a parent support group in your community. If there’s none, start one. It can be just you and one other parent in the beginning. Trust that other parents feel as isolated as you do, and eventually the group will grow.
• Ask for help.