Mental Health Awareness Month: ‘Kids’ Mental Health Starts With Us’

The Kids Mental Health Foundation Icon
May 2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio (May 2, 2025) – Kicking off during Mental Health Awareness Month, The Kids Mental Health Foundation is launching a new initiative to empower adults across the United States to support children’s mental health and wellness with confidence. Kids Mental Health Starts With Us highlights the crucial role parents, caregivers, grandparents, educators, coaches and community members play in helping the children in their lives build mental wellness and resilience before mental health concerns arise.

The Kids Mental Health Foundation—founded by the behavioral health professionals at Nationwide Children’s Hospital—emphasizes that treatment cannot be the only solution during the national children’s mental health crisis.

“Kids' mental health has to start with all of us,” said Ariana Hoet, PhD, executive clinical director of The Kids Mental Health Foundation and a pediatric psychologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “We know adults want to help, but they may not have grown up talking about mental health, and they may not know the best ways to help. That’s why we need to provide education and awareness and teach adults to build these critical skills to help kids.” 

The Kids Mental Health Foundation’s free resources — guides, lesson plans and articles — are custom-built by Nationwide Children’s experts to help parents learn how to start talking about mental health and build skills with their children before a concern or emergency.

The Foundation kicks off Kids Mental Health Starts with Us with the release of a new “knowledge gap” survey conducted by Ipsos and commissioned by The Kids Mental Health Foundation. The survey shows while most grown-ups agree it is important to talk about strengthening mental wellness, most parents do not know exactly how.

The survey of nearly 1,500 parents, teachers and coaches — conducted by Ipsos on behalf of The Kids Mental Health Foundation, founded by the behavioral health professionals at Nationwide Children’s Hospital — finds the following information:

  • Only 35% of parents surveyed strongly agree that they know the daily habits kids need to boost mental wellness, yet 97% of parents believe it is important to have access to kids’ mental health resources.
  • 41% of teachers surveyed strongly agree that they know the daily habits kids need to boost mental wellness, yet 96% of teachers agree that having access to mental health resources is important.
  • 47% of coaches surveyed strongly agree that they know the daily habits kids need to boost mental wellness, yet 98% of coaches say having access to mental health resources is important.


To make these survey results actionable for parents, teachers and coaches, The Kids Mental Health Foundation is offering three important strategies to get started, along with resources to help build skills to teach the children in their lives:

  1. Talk to kids and take them seriously.Learn about their friends, their interests and the things that make them worried, angry or sad. Show them that their thoughts, feelings and experiences matter. 
  2. Normalize mental health. Children are taught to tell an adult if they feel sick or get hurt. Children should also learn to tell an adult if they feel sad, scared or anxious. Adults can begin by teaching children how to name their emotions, use activities to help kids notice how they are feelingand to teach them how to cope with strong emotions. 
  3. Practice modeling healthy behaviors. Kids pick up a lot of behaviors from the people around them. When adults hide their feelings, children may believe that they should suppress their emotions. To best take care of others, start by taking care of yourself.

Kids Mental Health Starts With Us also is launching several new efforts and events to raise awareness:

  • The organization will host a national Kids Mental Health Day celebration at The Grove in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 17. The free community celebration will include activities and programs designed to boost children’s mental health and wellness — and will include celebrity volunteers and special surprises. Parents and caregivers can build their own mental wellness kit and get free resources (available in Spanish and English) created by mental health experts that empower them to raise strong, confident kids.
  • The Kids Mental Health Foundation has launched a WhatsApp channel (La Fundacion para la Salud Mental los Niños) to share children’s mental health resources every week with Spanish-speaking parents and caregivers.
  • The Kids Mental Health Foundation has launched a new Corporate Collective to unite companies nationally to raise awareness and increase access to free mental health educational tools.
  • The Kids Mental Health Foundation has partnered with The Columbus Crew and HOMAGE for a new T-shirt “Kids Mental Health Crew” that will be available online and in select Homage stores throughout May. A portion of the sales of each shirt will go toward supporting children’s mental health.
  • The Columbus Crew is hosting The Kids Mental Health Foundation Night during its game against Charlotte FC on Saturday, May 3, at Lower.com Field. The Crew will also host The 5K for Kids’ Mental Health for the second consecutive year on Saturday, October 11. Registration is now open.

For more educational resources about kids’ mental health, please visit KidsMentalHealthFoundation.org.

The Kids Mental Health Foundation is the leading organization promoting mental health for children in the United States. To achieve its vision to build a world where mental health is a vital part of every child’s upbringing, nearly 1,000 mental health professionals and researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, in partnership with other trusted experts, provide real-world

knowledge and expertise to power the Foundation's free educational videos, guides and curriculum. To date, more than 24 million people have engaged with the Foundation’s materials, helping parents, educators and coaches be a guiding force for children all across the United States. During Mental Health Awareness Month in May, The Kids Mental Health Foundation is shining a spotlight on how “Kids Mental Health Starts with Us” and ways its free tools and resources can help empower parents, teachers and coaches across the United States.