Reflecting on Mental Health Awareness Month
May is mental health awareness month, and as it draws to a close we figured it was worth looking back on the month to see the successes and failures of well-being in the legal profession.
The successes are that more people within the legal field are talking about mental health and well-being. And the increased focus has started to yield some positive trends in some of the metrics. However, there is still a long ways to go.
There are several reasons why there is still a ways to go. First, mental health is complicated, and ending the stigma can be seem like an endless journey with no map to guide the way. In some cases, firms are starting to say the right things, or even offer better mental health benefits, while not taking a deeper look at the culture that still pervades many legal offices, specifically a culture where associates, particularly junior associates and minorities, don’t feel psychologically safe, don’t feel like they can take time off, and feel too much pressure to meet demanding billable hours requirements.
Yet we know that this field is full of people whose lives are not broken up into six minutes increments. Recognizing the person is what we do here at the LegalMind Society because an associate is much more than the hours they billed for you.
And this brings us to the conclusion that we are seemingly left with after ever Mental Health Awareness month. We are left with the realization that talk may increase awareness. It may allow associates to take the first steps in realizing they might need support, but until the culture changes and things driving mental health challenges in the legal profession are truly addressed, we will still have a ways to go. Some might argue that is just how the legal profession has always been, but just because it has always been done that way doesn’t mean it needs to keep being done that way.
Together we can keep the conversation surrounding mental well-being in the legal profession moving in the right direction. Together we can work to end the stigma and get legal professionals the support they need.