Pulse Check 2025: Mothers on Child Mental Health Impacts, Care, and Support

Recently released report sheds light on some troubling trends in adolescent behavioral health access.

The findings are clear:

• 56% of mothers are worried about their children’s mental health. This concern cuts across income levels, politics, and geography. 

• Nearly 1 in 4 mothers who sought help for their child couldn’t get it, most often due to cost or long waits.

• When asked to“describe the mental health support that would work best for your family,” mothers most often said expanding school-based supports.

• Private insurance, the most common form of coverage, consistently fails families: high costs, long waits, and inadequate provider networks leave many without meaningful support. Fewer than half (46%) of privately-insured moms believe their plans provide sufficient mental health access.

• Mothers’ mental health is suffering alongside their children’s. More than 60% of moms who worry about their kids also struggle to care for themselves.
• Time is the thruline: The majority of mothers (53%) report difficulty tending to their own mental health, with time (46%) as the most cited barrier. From endless insurance paperwork to missed work and school days for appointments, systemic barriers drain the very resource parents lack most.

Pulse Check 2025: Mothers on Child Mental Health Impacts, Care, and Support, a new report from Count on Mothers in partnership with Inseparable. This nationally representative survey of 2,700 U.S. mothers provides policymakers, advocates, and industry leaders with firsthand insights into the urgent realities facing families today. Full report Link by Angela Kimball, Chief Advocacy Officer of Inseparable