LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Louisville’s Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods (OSHN) is encouraging men of color to step up this October and take care of their mental health.
An ad campaign around town features a diverse group of individuals that express a variety of feelings.
Some of the words featured include, hopeless, anxious and depressed.
In those ads, a phone number is listed that connects the caller to trained mental health professionals for free.
Within OSHN, the Trauma Resilient Communities program is focused on people with daily exposure to trauma like environmental violence, poverty, and racial injustice.
They also focus on ending the stigma around mental health for men of color.
The program wants to lower the barriers to the resources available and eliminate hyper-masculine ideals that would keep them out of clinical care.
”People are so mad, so angry, so upset, so mad,” said the program’s manager, Nannette Dix, “and they’re in the streets and don’t know where to turn.”
Clinical therapist Jonathon White is also trying to normalize mental health for Black men.
”Men deal with stress,” White said. “Men have feelings.”
White, a Black man himself, said representation is important.
“When people come into my office they say ‘I don’t know you were Black,’ or ‘It’s very good to have someone that’s able to identify with,’” White explained.
The phone number listed on the billboards in the OSHN campaign is (502) 901-0100.
There are a handful of other resources available too.
UofL Health also has a 24-hour hotline (502) 451-3333 or (800) 451-3637 and walk-in services at UofL Health Peace Hospital.
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