Mental Health: a strategy for you and clients

Smart Working: Health

Mental Health: a strategy for you and clients

All of us have pressure in our lives. Be it dealing with the impact of Covid and juggling family life, to rising inflationary and energy costs, to seeing the devastation in Ukraine; our resilience levels are being tested. Alarmingly, depression, anxiety and other potentially debilitating conditions have almost doubled in the UK during the pandemic. And unfortunately, women appear to be the most impacted.

According to the ONS, women are more likely than men to experience some form of depression across all age groups. The youngest groups are the most impacted.

16-29 years old: 43% women are experiencing depressive symptoms compared with 26% of men of this group.

30-49 years old: women in this age bracket are the next most vulnerable group, in terms of experiencing some form of depression.

The World Health Organisation – “Depression is not only the most common women's mental health problem, but when we refer to the prevalence of depression in men vs women, women are in an unfortunate lead.”

What's the prevalence of depression in men vs women? World Economic Forum (weforum.org)

No matter what profession we work in, or what our responsibilities might be inside or outside of work, we can all feel the impact of mental ill health and increased stress from time to time. Legal professionals (in my experience, especially female legal professionals) can take on the burden of stress from their clients on top of everything they are dealing with personally. Sometimes solicitors are listening to clients’ financial and legal woes, becoming a confidant on incredibly emotive situation that their clients might not even talk to their families about.

Who cares for the carer?

Of course, there are responsibilities to your clients, but you also need to protect your own mental health.

In 2015, that the Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority (SRA) highlighted the need for the legal services industry to do more to ensure that vulnerable customers, and those that lacked mental capacity, were identified and supported. Solicitors need to demonstrate, beyond doubt, that their client has the clarity and capacity to make their own decisions, in a way that can both satisfy the SRA and hold up under clinical scrutiny. However, financial vulnerability can be hard to identify beyond physical health and life-event triggers, putting undue pressure on legal professionals who are not trained to identify what are often mental health and psychological conditions. Plus, it can be even harder to spot client vulnerability and reduced capacity if that person themselves is dealing with their own issues too. To deal with the stresses and strains as a solicitor, here are four ways that you can do just that starting today:

1. Getting regular exercise can help ease stress, boost your mood and improve your self-esteem. Where possible aim for 30 minutes of activity daily. This needn’t feel like a mammoth task, even a brisk walk will do the trick. Eat well, focusing on an abundance of fruits and vegetables and drinking plenty of water. Alongside moving more, be sure to get plenty of sleep. Feeling tired will only increase your stress and any negative thoughts you might have. Aim for about between seven and nine hours a night where possible.

2. Take time to relax and give your mind a break from worrying or overthinking. Meditating, breathing exercises, mindfulness, practicing yoga or even a long bath can all be great ways to relieve stress and restore some balance to your life. Taking some time for yourself without any distractions enables us to give back to others more effectively.

3. It’s important to concentrate on things you can control. Interestingly several studies have found that women tend to use coping strategies that are aimed at changing their emotional responses to a stressful situation, whereas men use more problem-focused or instrumental methods of handling stressful experiences. But a more problem focused method might be a useful concept here. In fact, sticking to routines can help us to manage uncertainty, as can setting goals that are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based). Be careful to set yourself realistic goals, then allow yourself to feel a sense of achievement when you achieve them. It’s important to congratulate yourself on your achievements, rather than berating yourself on what you haven’t done.

4. In being more aware of your own mental health, you can also help to spot the signs of mental ill health in others too. For instance, you might wish to consider becoming a mental health first aider. Talking a dedicated course on mental health can help you to recognise and respond to the signs and symptoms of common mental health conditions, and effectively guide your colleagues towards the right support. Mental health awareness is something that many organisations value highly nowadays, so not only can you help others who might be suffering, but it’s a fantastic transferable skill.

The key is to ensure you find someone you can talk to. Sharing your thoughts can often help you reflect on it in a more logical way. After all, a problem shared really is always a problem halved.

Tim Farmer

Co-founder and Clinical Director at Comentis