The Daily Toil: Interactional Demands and Difficulties

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-106
Author(s):  
Emma Jones ◽  
Neil Graffin ◽  
Rajvinder Samra ◽  
Mathijs Lucassen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Professional Obligations ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores the interactional demands placed on legal professionals. These include meeting the demands of clients, dealing with vulnerable clients and balancing the needs of clients with the ethical and professional obligations and requirements placed on legal professionals. It also explores the nature of many legal professional’s relationship with their colleagues, which can range from providing a supportive network to potentially creating a toxic working environment. In particular, it considers the way in which the structure of the legal profession results in those who succeed as lawyers being promoted to become managers, despite the potentially very different skillsets involved. This can lead to significant issues with mental health and wellbeing for both the team members involved and the manager themselves.

The ‘S’ Word: Stress and the Legal Profession

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-130
Author(s):  
Emma Jones ◽  
Neil Graffin ◽  
Rajvinder Samra ◽  
Mathijs Lucassen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Coping Mechanisms ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Word Stress

This chapter begins by focusing on stress, a key issue raised by many in the study. It considers the theoretical meaning of this term and explores how it is conceptualised within the legal profession. This includes discussing key stressors and destressors and linking these to the themes highlighted in previous chapters. It moves on to focus on the reactions and responses to stress (and other mental health and wellbeing problems) that have been identified by legal professionals, including a number of dysfunctional coping mechanisms such as alcohol and substance abuse. It also considers more positive responses (such as yoga) and explore to what extent these alone can impact on the issues facing the profession.

Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Legal Profession

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Jones ◽  
Neil Graffin ◽  
Rajvinder Samra ◽  
Mathijs Lucassen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Health And Wellbeing

Emotion work in a mental health service setting

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hege Sjølie ◽  
Per-Einar Binder ◽  
Ingrid Dundas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Emotional Expression ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Home Treatment ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Emotion Work ◽  
Treatment Team ◽  
Crisis Resolution ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Daily Work

The purpose of this article is to describe emotion work within a crisis resolution home treatment team in Norway. As defined by Hochschild, “emotion work” refers to managing one’s emotions according to what is culturally acceptable within a particular situation. A crisis resolution home treatment team is of particular interest when studying emotion work, because it represents a working environment where mental health crises and suicidal threat are common and where managing emotions is necessary for the team to function well. We aimed to expand current knowledge of the particular ways in which emotion work may be done by observing and describing the daily work of such a team. Our analyses showed that team members’ emotion work had five main features: (1) emotional expression was common and there seemed to be an informal rule that “vulnerable” emotions could be expressed; (2) emotional expression was most commonly observed in post-event discussions of challenging events or service users; (3) emotional expression facilitated digesting or processing of the event with the help of a fellow team member; (4) emotional expression was met with validation and support; and (5) this support seemed to increase mentalization and understanding of the situation and could be offered only by other team members. An implication of these findings is that informal exchanges of emotion are a necessary part of the work and cannot occur outside of the work context.

Children, Psychiatrists and the Courts: Understanding the Ambivalence of the Legal Profession: Part I - General Principles

1994 ◽  
Vol 39 (9) ◽  
pp. 526-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Bala
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Expert Witnesses ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Court Proceedings ◽  
Court Process

Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals are frequently involved as expert witnesses in court proceedings related to children and adolescents. Their testimony may be based on a therapeutic relationship, but frequently arises because of an assessment conducted specifically for the court process. This two part paper discusses some of the issues that arise when child psychiatrists are involved as expert witnesses in litigation, with specific focus on their role in child custody, sexual abuse and young offender cases. It also offers some practical advice for those who may be called as witnesses. There is controversy in the legal profession about the role of mental health professionals in the court process. While there is recognition of their expertise, there is also a concern about not wanting to have experts usurp the role of the courts. Legal professionals also question the “objectivity” of experts, and the reliability of their opinions. Frequently the opinions of psychiatrists about children and adolescents involved in litigation have inherently speculative and value based dimensions, and not “scientific”. Participation in the court process by mental health experts is nevertheless a vitally important role, providing information, analysis and recommendations about what are often very difficult societal decisions. Part two of this paper starts on page 531.

Law as a Commodity, Individuals as Packages

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
Emma Jones ◽  
Neil Graffin ◽  
Rajvinder Samra ◽  
Mathijs Lucassen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Long Working Hours ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Working Practices

This chapter explores perhaps the largest theme to emerge from the study, the cultural and structural factors which influence mental health and wellbeing in the legal profession. It begins by contrasting the expectations of legal life with the reality of the lived experience and identify a range of features which contribute to this (including pressures to meet billing targets, a long working hours culture and other potentially harmful norms). It also considers some of the underlying issues around equality, diversity and inclusivity which continue to impact upon the structure of the profession. The discussion links these to key theories examining the link between complicity and the normalisation of extreme demands. Overall, this chapter argues that these cultural and structural factors require challenging and changing to enable healthier working practices to embed themselves within the profession.

Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Legal Profession

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMMA JONES ◽  
NEIL GRAFFIN ◽  
RAJVINDER SAMRA ◽  
MATHIJS LUCASSEN
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Health And Wellbeing

The Way Ahead: Disaster Mental Health Systems of Care

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Perez ◽  
Merritt Schreiber ◽  
Robin Gurwitch ◽  
Jeff Coady
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Systems Of Care ◽  
Disaster Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Systems ◽  
The Way
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