Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m M A Y 2 0 1 5 21 on ways we can integrate wellbeing into our daily routines and to support our lawyers and staff in reaching their per- sonal health goals." Another provider, myHealthSphere took a look at the offerings, needs, and uses in putting together its product, Dooo, aimed at lawyers and law firms. It concluded that the health benefits struc- ture is moving toward a more custom- ized experience with fitness credits and reimbursement instead of prescribed programs. Workshop topics are crowd- sourced, where emphasis is placed on choice and preference in a more flexible digital environment. "Lawyers do not attend the programs that HR spends a lot of time doing . . . it's only the support staff," says Jane Wang, myHealthSphere's chief executive officer. The company has developed a program she describes as a daily coaching tool aimed at the seden- tary, highly productive professions. It is available as a desktop tool or a mobile application aimed to support sustained happiness during the day through a sort of work-recess approach, "moving the needle from the lunch and learn to daily activity." Wong isn't alone in identifying cur- rent concerns. Tim Daley is following up his term as president of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society in a new role created for him of special adviser on mental health. He now speaks to lawyers and other professional groups across the country. Having suffered from depression himself, he sees mental health as having been stigmatized, or at least ignored, in a profession with a propensity to suffering its consequences. His own three-person firm of Good- man MacDonald, which has recently become part of the Patterson Law family, subscribes to no outside health-and-well- ness program. "In my experience, which is largely with small, mid-to-large-type firms in the Maritimes . . . there really isn't much in the way of a preventative program in place," he says. But having taken the time to address those working in his own practice, he points out the lawyers, staff, and their families all have access to the province's Lawyer Assis- tance Program, which provides short- term counselling and health and wellness information through an outside provider. "There's always a surprise about how broad it is and how big it is." When speaking in Nova Scotia, he'll outline how the LAP works and what's available. There's less of an emphasis when he speaks outside the province, but he will note that every province has a similar organization with a variety of programs available. For Daley, those programs are vital for a profession that has dispropor- tionate numbers suffering from mental health issues. The hypothesis is that the critical thinking demanded of lawyers requires them to analyze a problem, tear it apart, and find the holes — he likens it to pessimistic thinking. When that is carried into one's personal and family life, problems develop. In his own experience on a family vacation to Disneyland, Daley found himself doing a constant risk assessment of the amuse- ment park, the ultimate pessimist at "the happiest place on earth." Any preventative programs that do exist have historically focused on physi- cal health. Now Daley says he is seeing a trend toward focusing on mental-health wellness as well as the physical and a will- ingness to bridge that gap in understand- ing. "It's a huge leap for firms" where performance and huge time investment is often demanded, he says. "There's a few in this world that can do it all, but very few." "Slowly but surely we are beginning to take our heads out of the gopher hole," he says, adding the profession is still at the nascent level in understanding and accepting the issues and the impact on individuals. The Legal Profession Assistance Conference of the Canadian Bar Asso- ciation, which serves as the umbrella organization for the network of provin- cial LAPs, commissioned a survey in 2012 to gauge issues related to health and wellness. It was completed by 1,180 lawyers, judges, and students. The sur- vey showed stress/burnout and anxiety were perceived as most prevalent in the legal profession (94 per cent and 68 per cent, respectively) and were the top two issues personally faced by respondents (58 per cent and 48 per cent, respec- tively). The core challenge the study identified was expanding the role and usefulness of the LAPs to lawyers. John Hoyles, the CBA's chief exec- utive officer, says lawyers will see a dramatic change in the offerings by summer's end, responding to the needs identified in that survey. "Wellness has been top of mind [at] the CBA for many years," he says. "What we're trying to do is reach out to everybody." Lawyers will soon have access to an online well- ness course focusing on mental health — with a bonus of CPD credits. The program will deal with stigma, treat- ment options, proactive wellness strate- gies, and help lawyers identify signs and symptoms. Hoyles now freely talks about his own experience with depression, but initially asked those to whom he had confided to keep it under wraps, fearing it a sign of weakness. Everybody is vulnerable, he says. And the message is that it should not be equated to weakness or failure. Identifying the signs of mood disorders becomes helpful in early identification and early intervention. LPAC's interactive online program will also have treatment options available in the various geographic areas and offer a list of best practices identified through the Canadian Mental Health Associa- tion. The wellness strategies available will serve as something of a tool kit of available options. "I can tell you when you're like this, you need somebody to help you with this," says Hoyles. "You can't try to carry this type of burden yourself." If law firms are behind in hitching onto the balanced lifestyle bandwagon, they may well be pushed further by the next generation of lawyers. "This has been a very significant priority on the law school front across the country — at Osgoode, our focus has been on the creation of the first office of student success and wellness counsellor," says Lorne Sossin, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School. The counsellor, Melanie Banka Goela, led an initiative funded by the province of Ontario to provide online mental health and wellness resources for all law students in collaboration with law schools across Ontario. It was launched last September. The plan is to take this initiative nationally later this year.

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