This Surgeon General's Advisory highlights the stressors that impact the mental health and well-being of parents and caregivers, the critical link between parental mental health and children's long-term well-being, and the urgent need to better support parents, caregivers, and families.

A Surgeon General’s Advisory is a public statement that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health issue and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed. Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.

This Advisory calls attention to the importance of parental stress, mental health and well-being, stressors unique to parenting, and the bidirectional relationship between parental mental health and child outcomes. 

It also offers actionable recommendations for the institutions that can reduce stress and support the mental health and well-being of parents and caregivers including communities and schools, employers, and policymakers, as well as for what parents and caregivers, family and friends, health and social service professionals, and researchers can do.