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About LawCare
LawCare is a
free and completely confidential
advisory service to help lawyers, their immediate families
and their staff to deal with the health issues and related emotional
difficulties that can result from a stressful career in the law.
LawCare offers
the opportunity for you to discuss problems which are interfering with, or
have the potential to interfere with, your work performance and/or your
family life and to seek help in resolving these problems.
Through LawCare, help is available to those who are suffering from stress
and/or depression, or who have alcohol, drug or other dependency concerns
or eating disorders.
The LawCare service:
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is totally free
(although any subsequent professional counselling or treatment will
normally have to be paid for);
-
is totally
confidential;
-
takes the form of an initial telephone discussion;
-
includes referral, where necessary, to expert assistance;
-
offers support, where appropriate, from a fellow lawyer who has suffered
and recovered, from the same problem;
-
is available to all lawyers, their staff and immediate families;
LawCare operates through
four helplines which are open :-
9am - 7.30pm, Monday to Friday and 10am - 4pm Saturday and Sunday.
For Solicitors and Legal Executives in England and Wales: 0800 279 6888
For Solicitors and Advocates in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of
Man: 0800 279 6869
For Barristers and Judges in England and Wales: 0800 018 4299
For Solicitors in Ireland: 1800 991801
For all administrative enquiries: 01268 771333
Occasionally, your call will be connected to an answering service, but if
this happens, your call will be returned at the earliest possible
opportunity, usually within 24 hours. You can help by leaving adequate
instructions and information, including an out of working hours number, if
possible.
Please note
that LawCare helpline staff are not professional counsellors or doctors,
but lawyers like you, with training in telephone counselling skills and
knowledge of the issues with which we assist. A call to LawCare should not
take the place of a visit to your GP and we encourage all callers to seek
expert medical help where required. We cannot give legal advice, or step
in to resolve a problem, but we can offer support, information and a
listening ear.
Those answering your call will seek, through talking to you, to identify
the precise nature and extent of your problem. Where appropriate they will
refer you to a relevant health professional for counselling and / or
treatment, or to other specialist organisations that can offer help. They
may also be able to offer the support of a lawyer volunteer who has
recovered from similar problems and has returned to play an active and
effective role in the profession.
Why has LawCare been established?
Most professionals believe they should be able to handle their own
problems, even when such problems are completely outside their
professional training and experience. Lawyers, in particular, because they
spend so much of their time sorting out other people's problems, find it
difficult to acknowledge that they, themselves, sometimes need help.
However, they usually find it easier to take this step with another lawyer
and so most of our staff and volunteers have experience of life in
practice.
Ignoring problems and hoping they will go away is no solution. The first
step is to recognise the existence of the problem. The second step is to
seek objective expert support and advice in dealing with it.
This is where LawCare comes in. LawCare is here to help you to cope with
the increasing number of stresses, and related problems, facing the
profession today, any one of which can adversely affect your professional
performance and family life.
LawCare is a
registered charity funded by, but completely independent of:
Lawyers Helping Lawyers
Of crucial importance to the service LawCare offers is the network of
volunteers, themselves lawyers, who, because of their personal experience
in dealing with their own problem, or that of someone close to them, feel
that they can offer a fellow lawyer additional support on a more personal
level. More volunteers are always needed and we would be pleased to hear
from anyone prepared to help. The identities of volunteers are kept
strictly confidential and no referrals occur without prior consultation.
Click here if
you would like to know more about being a volunteer.
Confidentiality
LawCare is a completely confidential service. No details relating to callers are passed
to anyone beyond statistical information. Where
case histories
are used, all identifying details are changed.
Further Information
A wide range of helpful information leaflets is available from LawCare,
free of charge, or can be downloaded from this site
(Click here).
Individuals are welcome to request them and we would also encourage firms
/ chambers to make these available to staff / members.
LawCare is also happy to provide articles for newsletters or to make
informative and educational presentations to firms, chambers and other
organizations. Click here
for further information about these.
LawCare Staff
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