Here’s hoping your new year starts out strong.
And to keep your law office strong, make well-being a priority in 2023.
Well-being is more than just not being sick. It’s about feeling good about your life, professionally and personally. It means full-spectrum health: mental, emotional, physical and mental. It means you are thriving and operating at your peak potential.
You can gauge your well-being by doing a self-assessment. One of the most popular well-being self-tests is the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. The test consists of 14 short questions regarding your thoughts and feelings over the last two weeks. At the end, you get a well-being score. The test takes only a few minutes to complete.
Here are three sample questions:
1. I’ve been feeling optimistic about the future
a) None of the time
b) Rarely
c) Some of the time
d) Often
e) All of the time
2. I’ve Been Feeling Useful
a) None of the time
b) Rarely
c) Some of the time
d) Often
e) All of the time
3. I’ve Been Feeling Relaxed
a) None of the time
b) Rarely
c) Some of the time
d) Often
e) All of the time
Take the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Assessment.
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ABA National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being
“We are at a crossroads. The legal profession is struggling,” according to the ABA Task Force on Lawyer Well-being. “To be a good lawyer, one has to be a healthy lawyer. To maintain public confidence in the profession, to meet the need for innovation in how we deliver legal services, to increase access to justice, and to reduce the level of toxicity that has allowed mental health and substance use disorders to fester among our colleagues, we have to act now. Change will require a wide-eyed and candid assessment of our members’ state of being, accompanied by courageous commitment to re-envisioning what it means to live the life of a lawyer.”
ABA Well-Being Campaign Pledge
Recognizing that high levels of problematic substance use and mental health distress present a significant challenge for the legal profession, and acknowledging that more can and should be done to improve the health and well-being of lawyers, we the attorneys of ___________________________________ hereby pledge our support for this innovative campaign and will work to adopt and prioritize its seven-point framework for building a better future.
- Provide enhanced and robust education to attorneys and staff on topics related to well-being, mental health, and substance use disorders.
- Disrupt the status quo of drinking-based events: (a) Challenge the expectation that all events include alcohol; seek creative alternatives. (b) Ensure there are always appealing nonalcoholic alternatives when alcohol is served.
- Develop visible partnerships with outside resources committed to reducing substance use disorders and mental health distress in the profession: healthcare insurers, lawyer assistance programs, EAPs, and experts in the field.
- Provide confidential access to addiction and mental health experts and resources, including free, inhouse, self-assessment tools.
- Develop proactive policies and protocols to support assessment and treatment of substance use and mental health problems, including a defined back-to-work policy following treatment.
- Actively and consistently demonstrate that help-seeking and self-care are core cultural values, by regularly supporting programs to improve physical, mental and emotional well-being.
- Highlight the adoption of this well-being framework to attract and retain the best lawyers and staff.
DOWNLOAD THE ABA WELL-BEING PLEDGE HERE
Source: livingwell.org.au
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