LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Oct. 10 has been designated as World Mental Health Day, a day to raise awareness of mental health issues and drive actions that promote and protect everyone's mental health as a universal human right. 

Jonathon White, a therapist with Norton Healthcare, stopped by WDRB Mornings on Tuesday to bring more light to the issue. 

"We have a long way to go to normalize mental health and create psychological safe places for people to be able to have the discussions and talk about the issue that are plaguing them," White said. 

For those currently struggling with their mental health, there are options. 

"You can try community mental health," White said. "If you are a patient at Norton's, you would seek your primary care physician. There are providers within the community. Sometimes people can access services through their faith-based organizations." 

White said family members play a key role in helping people during a mental health crisis. 

"I think family members are what's called 'natural support,'" White said. "And what we need from family members is to be educated. If we can increase health literacy, then we can have better outcomes because we have people with conditions, not conditions that have people. So the more that we know about it, the more that we can be proactive to get in front of the situation."

White said there are some issues that surface more frequently.

"Right now for most people, with the way things are going, it's what's called 'adjustment disorder,'" he said. "That's a DSM-5 diagnosis that takes the person and the environment. And what that means is 'my life was fine until something happened, and now I have these symptoms as a result.'" 

One of the most effective treatments available is therapy. 

"Therapy is very important," White said, "because therapy creates an environment of psychological safety. It fosters healing, and a space to where the person can kind of figure out and navigate what they want as their quality of life and be able to put the pieces of past trauma behind."

As with any treatment, cost can be an issue, but White said some places will charge people based on what they can afford to pay, and some insurance providers have become more flexible. 

"Well a lot of places that offer sliding scales," White said. "And what sliding scales are is the fees are set based on income or ability pay. I know that with our goodwill partner they would offer -- the first assessment is free. We've got a partnership with Spaulding University and their behavioral health to where there is a sliding scale. They have behavioral and complete neuro-psych services. There is psychologytoday.com, where you can search a provider that's in your area and look at the fee schedules and their specialties. 

"I think insurance is now more responsive when it comes to paying because most people are dealing with some form of crisis when we consider things not only on a national scale, but locally here. We've had the bank, we've had the tornado, we've had violence. So there's a lot that people are struggling with and I think that the insurance carriers and healthcare providers are even more receptive to be able to look at the whole person and not just the condition or diagnosis." 

Norton Healthcare offers several resources for mental health, including telehealth visits with therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers for patients in Kentucky and Indiana, according to its website.

In-person visits are also available at certain locations. Norton Behavioral Medicine can connect people to long-term behavioral health facilities, if needed.

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