Supported Parenting to Meet the Needs and Concerns of Mothers with Severe Mental Illness

Women with serious mental illness often parent without adequate support from psychiatric and behavioral health providers. The lack of such services is significant, given that women with SMI have children at the same or higher rates as women without psychiatric disabilities. In this call to action, we argue that the need to develop supported parenting initiatives for women with SMI is necessary and long overdue. First, we describe numerous social and systemic barriers in the U.S. that have hindered the development of parenting supports for women with SMI over the last century. We next describe recent qualitative and quantitative findings regarding the parenting needs and strengths of these mothers. Finally, we conclude with suggestions for future research, program development, and systems-level policy changes to support mothers with SMI in parenting most effectively.