Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day (May 7) seeks to raise awareness about the importance of children’s mental health and to reinforce the message that positive mental health is essential to a child’s healthy development.

The purpose of Awareness Day is to increase public awareness about the needs of children with serious mental illness (SMI) and severe emotional disturbance (SED) and their families, provide information on evidence-based practices, and encourage those who need help to seek treatment.It is celebrated to build awareness toward promoting positive youth development, recovery, and resilience.