“Often when you have an individual who has the illness, you’re working with the family,” said Wolf, a panelist on the topic discussing the intersection of mental health and the law. “But the person with the illness is telling the treatment team, ‘I don’t want you speaking to my family. I don’t want you sharing any information,’” said Wolf. “Now you have a family who has been supporting the person and now they’re shut out of what’s really going on with their loved one.

“The goal of working with families is to establish a roadmap or a plan to bring in support services to engage with the person who is ill. I’m not saying everybody should have blanket authority to access that information. But I believe you can set up a system where if it’s a family supporting them, who was navigating them through the system, should have access to that information.”

According to a recent research study (“Stress, drink, leave: An examination of gender-specific risk factors for mental health problems and attrition among licensed attorneys”), co-authored by Dr. Justin Anker, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, mental illness and heavy alcohol use are “exceedingly high” in the legal profession, especially among women.

Anker shared his findings as part of the second panel of the symposium noting, “Of the 3,000 lawyers that were randomly sampled, about 30% were at high risk for ‘hazardous drinking,’” he said. “This can be interpreted within the range of what you’d see in alcohol abuse or possible alcohol dependents.”

Anker said three main factors contribute to growing concern:

1. Work and family time
2. Extreme work schedules
3. Permissiveness towards alcohol in the workplace

“Women are at greater risk for mental health issues in comparison to men,” Anker told the Charleston Law Podcast. “More women considered leaving the legal profession due to mental health problems, burnout or stress.”

If there is a silver lining to be found in Anker’s findings, its can be found in the American Bar Association’s (ABA) lawyer assistance programs. “Mental health problems and substance use problems that can create barriers for seeking treatment,” said Anker. “People retreat. They don’t want to talk about that stuff because they think it may jeopardize their career. This campaign is really designed to decrease that stigma surrounding mental health issues, so legal professionals feel more comfortable seeking the help that they need.”