 At Audiology Associates of Prestonsburg, you can live your life the way you want and find the freedom of better hearing. With 40 years of being in the hearing care industry, you'll experience patient care that is specific to you with exceptional follow-up care that ensures your hearing and balance needs are being met. Audiology Associates at 1428 Northlake Drive in Prestonsburg. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and according to the CDC, over 50% of Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness at some point in their lifetime. We spoke to Cheryl Combs, a clinical social worker, on the importance of mental health and resources in the region. I think it's important to talk about what mental health is. The definition of mental health is something that's kind of difficult even for mental health providers to be able to come to an agreement on. And so the one that I adopt is the one that assumes that mental health is a state of well-being that allows individuals to cope with the normal stresses of life and function productively across several domains. So the importance of maintaining good mental health is that basically mental health is the foundation of everything that we do in life that matters. It's the foundational skills necessary to be able to have good physical health because that involves our thought processes, our beliefs, our behaviors around good mental health, around social skills and social interactions. Healthy relationships involve that same structure of thoughts, feelings, behaving in a way that promotes healthy social interaction and supports healthy interconnected relationships. Big Sandy Healthcare has two clinics in Pike County in addition to clinics in Floyd, McGuffin and Martin Counties. They also have access to telehealth services through the University of Kentucky. There are a few suggestions that I like to discuss with people to empower them to be able to identify the best service possible to match their specific name. Because it's important to understand that there's no one-size-fits-all therapist which means one therapist isn't going to work for all people or all concerns. It's important to arm ourselves with the understanding of what our specific concerns are and be willing to ask questions to that therapist or to that mental health provider because it is a service that's being provided to you. So what that means is that it's helpful to consider an interview on both parts that not only are they interviewing you but you're interviewing them to see if this is a good fit because we want to be able to click with that person. And so for me to find the right mental health provider, that's going to mean that I'm going to find someone who I feel like basically gets me and understands the gist of what my concerns are. And that's a basic foundation of being able to build the trust and safety necessary within a therapy who's setting to be able to receive the kind of help that we need. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call Big Sandy Health Care at 606-886-8546. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Brianna Robinson.