Wellbeing
LawCare – Weʼre here to listen
T
he charity LawCare was founded over twenty years ago to address issues from pressure of work or study to financial problems, coping with illness, depression and many other problems. The need is more than ever with the pandemic experience we all share. Elizabeth Rimmer, Chief Executive, discusses the challenges to the legal profession and what LawCare can do to help. Lawyers in COVID At LawCare, the legal mental health charity, we have been contacted by many legal professionals who are feeling burnt out, struggling to cope with the workload and the demands upon them. We hear from those on furlough who are anxious about their future, from lawyers whose relationships or finances are under great strain and from parents who have found the mental load of home-schooling and working impossible. Since March 2020, around 34% of all contact to our support service have had a COVID element with the top issues being a deterioration of of existing mental health issues, not being permitted to work from home, struggling to adapt to working at home, feeling isolated and being overloaded with work. The legal profession and wellbeing Life in the law is challenging at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic. While it can be a fantastically rewarding career, most would agree that there is a heavy workload and a great deal of pressure. Law is traditionally very hierarchical and male dominated at the top and it can be difficult to talk about how you are feeling for fear of showing weakness or being disadvantaged in some way. Bullying and harassment is common. Law by its nature is adversarial and reactive, there is a lot of negative emotion in the law and you are often required to look for the worst case scenario which means your brain become used to overthinking and defaults to pessimism. Often the type of work can be traumatic. You are dealing with people at crisis points in their lives particularly in family law or asylum cases. Managing client expectations can be tough, alongside an attitude of doing whatever it takes to get the job done regardless of personal wellbeing. 20 | LegalWomen
The legal personality In addition to the challenges presented by the pandemic and the culture of law, the type of person who goes into the law often has traits which can hamper wellbeing. They usually have high expectations of themselves and what they want to achieve in life and are often perfectionists. This means they find it hard to say “no” to people and any bump in the road is hard for them to manage. They find it hard to ask for help, believing they should be self-sufficient. Recognising poor mental health We all have mental health and at different points in our lives we are likely to have good and poor mental health. Sometimes it can be hard to tell there is a problem. Stress tends to build slowly and you may have got so used to working at a certain pace or feeling a certain way that you do not realise you need help. Some lawyers are existing in a near constant state of chronic stress, which can lead to burn out. Here are some things to watch out for: ■ Irritability ■ Lethargy, sleep problems ■ Panic attacks ■ Nausea ■ Aches and pains ■ Poor concentration, memory and motivation ■ Withdrawal – cancelling plans, loss of interest ■ Deterioration in relationships ■ Feeling overwhelmed ■ Inability to switch off How LawCare can help If you are struggling then the most important thing is to talk about how you are feeling – you will be surprised how much better you will feel from just offloading. When we are in a difficult situation we lose our problem-solving abilities, it can be impossible to focus and it can seem overwhelming to choose what action to take. Sometimes a listening ear and a nudge in the right direction is all we need to move on.
