One in three mothers in Virginia struggle to find mental health care for their children.

That’s what Inseparable, a mental health advocacy group, and Count on Mothers, a national research firm, found in their 2025 national survey. The mothers surveyed said that time was the biggest hurdle to accessing care for their children’s mental health needs.

While Virginia isn’t unique — 23% of the 2,703 mothers surveyed nationally reported facing similar challenges — the findings highlight what many parents and mental health professionals already know: It can be difficult to find mental health support for a child in Virginia. There are long waitlists due to a shortage of professionals, long drives to reach them and financial barriers to care.

Virginians, and others across the U.S., are facing a youth mental health crisis that became pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic and hasn’t faded since, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

“We do continue to be in a mental health crisis for youth,” said Rachel Deane, Chief Executive Officer at Voices for Virginia’s Children, a child policy and advocacy group.

There is an overall shortage of psychologists and psychiatrists in Virginia, but it becomes even more pronounced when families look for professionals qualified to work with adolescents. It’s hard to find a psychiatric hospital bed for an adult during an acute crisis — and even harder if the patient is a youth. And then there’s the question of insurance coverage, which is one of the main barriers to care nationwide, according to the Inseparable survey.

And the situation becomes even more challenging the farther one travels from urban centers, often leaving parents to drive long distances for what can be life-saving help.

A 2022 assessment of the mental health workforce by the Virginia Health Care Foundation found that 93 of Virginia’s 133 localities are federally-designated “Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas.”

“The small number of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in Virginia is particularly concerning, especially with recent reports of the traumas high numbers of children are experiencing as a result of the pandemic,” the report said.

Charlottesville Tomorrow spoke with several mothers across Virginia about what it’s like to seek mental health care for their children. Here are the stories of four mothers — three of whom requested to use a pseudonym or share only their initials to protect the identities of their children.