scholarly journals Law Students and Lawyers With Mental Health and Substance Abuse Problems: Protecting the Public and the Individual

Author(s):  
Laura Rothstein

The practice of law is a high-prestige, high-income, high-skill, and highstress profession. Lawyers provide important professional services to members of the public—services that can affect life and death and important matters in the lives of others. Whether because of the personalities of those who choose to enter the legal profession, professional pressures, or a combination thereof, there are significant concerns within the legal profession about the impact of stress on mental health and about substance abuse problems.

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-98
Author(s):  
Olanike S. Adelakun-Odewale

Very few faculties of law in Nigerian universities that offer law programme have established law clinics that offer live-client services to the public as part of their legal education training. Across the border, clinical legal education is gaining more popularity by the day as a tool to imbibe the necessary skills in students to become sound legal practitioners. This article assesses the impact of law clinics on the skills of law students to enable them handle effectively the demands of the legal profession. The article analyses the correlation between law clinics that provide services to live clients and the skills acquired vis-à-vis the performance of student clinicians. The article recommends the need to integrate live-client law clinics into the mainstream legal education system in Nigeria.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Houwaart

Abstract End-user (e.g. patients or the public) testing of information material is becoming more common in the German public health care system. However, including the end-user (in this case patients) in an optimisation process and thus enabling a close collaboration while developing PIMs is still rare. This is surprising, given the fact that patients provide the exact perspective one is trying to address. Within the isPO project, a patient organization is included as a legal project partner to act as the patient representative and provide the patient's perspective. As such, the patient organization was included in the PHR approach as part of the PIM-optimisation team. During the optimisation process, the patients gave practical insights into the procedures of diagnosing and treating different types of cancer as well as into the patient's changing priorities and challenges at different time points. This was crucial information for the envisioned application of the individual PIMs and their hierarchical overview. Moreover, the developed PIM-checklist enabled the patients to give detailed feedback to the PIMs. With their experience of being in the exact situation in which the PIMs will be applied, their recommendations, especially on the wording and layout of the materials, have been a valuable contribution to the PIM optimisation process. In this part of the seminar, we will take a closer look at the following skill building aspects: What is gained from including patients as end-users in the development and optimization of PIM?How can we reach patients to contribute to a PIM optimization process? Which requirements and prerequisites do patients have to provide to successfully work on an optimisation team?How to compromise and weigh opinions when different ideas occur? Altogether, this part will construct a structured path of productive patient involvement and help to overcome uncertainties regarding a collaboration with patient organizations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 628-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Joslyn ◽  
Steven M. Sylvester

In this article, we examine the individual predictors that are responsible for accurate beliefs about the link between vaccinations and autism. We then show how these beliefs affect policy preferences about vaccines. We derive two hypotheses from motivated reasoning theory and test these on national survey data from Gallup and CBS News. Republicans were less likely to report accurate beliefs than Democrats. In addition, educational attainment modified the impact of party identification. The gap between Republicans and Democrats in likelihood of reporting accurate beliefs was largest among the most educated portion of the public. Finally, we show that accurate beliefs about vaccines, independent of statistical controls, are important predictors of policy attitudes about unvaccinated children attending public school and parental choice about the decision to vaccinate. We discuss the theoretical and practical significance of these findings.


2022 ◽  
pp. 105984052110681
Author(s):  
Ashwini R. Hoskote ◽  
Emily Croce ◽  
Karen E. Johnson

School nurses are crucial to addressing adolescent mental health, yet evidence concerning their evolving role has not been synthesized to understand interventions across levels of practice (i.e., individual, community, systems). We conducted an integrative review of school nurse roles in mental health in the U.S. related to depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress. Only 18 articles were identified, published from 1970 to 2019, and primarily described school nurses practicing interventions at the individual level, yet it was unclear whether they were always evidence-based. Although mental health concerns have increased over the years, the dearth of rigorous studies made it difficult to determine the impact of school nurse interventions on student mental health outcomes and school nurses continue to feel unprepared and under supported in this area. More research is needed to establish best practices and systems to support school nursing practice in addressing mental health at all levels of practice.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 410-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. P. Segal ◽  
S. L. Hayes

Mental health consumers/survivors developed consumer-run services (CRSs) as alternatives to disempowering professionally run services that limited participant self-determination. The objective of the CRS is to promote recovery outcomes, not to cure or prevent mental illness. Recovery outcomes pave the way to a satisfying life as defined by the individual consumer despite repetitive episodes of disorder. Recovery is a way of life, which through empowerment, hope, self-efficacy, minimisation of self-stigma, and improved social integration, may offer a path to functional improvement that may lead to a better way to manage distress and minimise the impact of illness episodes. ‘Nothing about us without us’ is the defining objective of the process activity that defines self-help. It is the giving of agency to participants. Without such process there is a real question as to whether an organisation is a legitimate CRS or simply a non-governmental organisation run by a person who claims lived experience. In considering the effectiveness of CRSs, fidelity should be defined by the extent to which the organisation's process conveys agency. Unidirectional helping often does for people what they can do for themselves, stealing agency. The consequence of the lack of fidelity in CRSs to the origins of the self-help movement has been a general finding in multisite studies of no or little difference in outcomes attributable to the consumer service. This, from the perspective of the research summarised herein, results in the mixing of programmatic efforts, some of which enhance outcomes as they are true mutual assistance programmes and some of which degrade outcomes as they are unidirectional, hierarchical, staff-directed helping efforts making false claims to providing agency. The later CRS interventions may provoke disappointment and additional failure. The indiscriminate combining of studies produces the average: no effect.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-134
Author(s):  
Emily Wapples

Law student mental health and wellbeing was already a growing concern in the UK prior to COVID-19, but when the pandemic occurred, widespread uncertainty placed an unprecedented level of mental health burden on students. Law students were faced with dashed hopes, uncertain futures and the fear of negative academic consequences. This burden was exacerbated in respect of postgraduate international students in London, who were often also forced to decide whether to return home to their families, or to continue their studies abroad, albeit online. This paper uses a case study approach to discuss how one provider of postgraduate clinical legal education (CLE), approached the promotion of positive student mental health both before, and in response to, the pandemic. qLegal at Queen Mary, University of London provides CLE to postgraduates studying for a one year law masters, and in 2019-2020, qLegal delivered CLE to 134 students from 27 countries. The impact that the pandemic had on the mental health of international postgraduate law students was therefore witnessed first-hand. This paper discusses the challenges faced, and concerns raised by international postgraduate law students at qLegal as a result of the pandemic. It examines the steps taken by qLegal to maximise student engagement and promote positive student mental health when rapidly switching to a model of online delivery. The paper concludes by outlining the steps qLegal will take to monitor and address the impact that online delivery in this period of global uncertainty has on the mental health of the next cohort of postgraduate CLE students.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Boycott ◽  
Justine Schneider ◽  
Michael Osborne

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to draw out the lessons learned from the implementation of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) approach to supported employment in two contrasting adult mental health teams; one “standard” CMHT, and one early intervention in psychosis (EIP) team. Design/methodology/approach – These inferences are based on the evidence from a four-year study of IPS in one mental health care provider in the UK, which began by setting up a new service, and went on to run a RCT looking at the impact of psychological input as an adjunct to IPS alone. Findings – In attempting to introduce IPS to mental health teams in Nottingham the authors came across numerous barriers, including service reorganisation, funding cuts and the wider context of recession. Differences were observed between mental health teams in the willingness to embrace IPS. The authors argue that this variability is due to differences in caseload size, recovery priorities and client profiles. The authors have learnt that perseverance, strenuous efforts to engage clinical staff and the use of IPS fidelity reviews can make a positive difference to the implementation process. Practical implications – The experience suggests that setting up an IPS service is possible even in the most challenging of times, and that EIP services may be a particularly fertile ground for this approach. The authors also discuss potential barriers to implementing new services in mental health teams. Originality/value – This paper will be of value to service development and the science of implementation in mental health.


Author(s):  
Hemi Mistry

Additional opinions—that is, dissenting opinions, separate opinions, and declarations—are, by definition, the primary institutional mechanism through which judges can express their individual views on a particular decision, as distinct from the judgment or decision proclaimed on behalf of the institution. Therefore, within the public sphere they are the principal institutional manifestation of the individual—and thus the individuality—of the judge. Consequently, for those who seek to understand the impact of certain personal characteristics upon how a judge discharges their professional functions and, in turn, the wider institutional and systemic implications of the participation of individuals bearing those characteristics, the study of additional opinions would seem a useful analytical enterprise. Using gender diversity at the International Court of Justice as a case study, the purpose of this chapter is twofold: first, to explain the relationship between diversity and additional opinions, and second, to explore the methodological potential, and challenges, that the study of additional opinions entails.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (15) ◽  
pp. 2498-2513
Author(s):  
Jing-Li Yue ◽  
Wei Yan ◽  
Yan-Kun Sun ◽  
Kai Yuan ◽  
Si-Zhen Su ◽  
...  

AbstractThe upsurge in the number of people affected by the COVID-19 is likely to lead to increased rates of emotional trauma and mental illnesses. This article systematically reviewed the available data on the benefits of interventions to reduce adverse mental health sequelae of infectious disease outbreaks, and to offer guidance for mental health service responses to infectious disease pandemic. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO, WHO Global Research Database on infectious disease, and the preprint server medRxiv were searched. Of 4278 reports identified, 32 were included in this review. Most articles of psychological interventions were implemented to address the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, followed by Ebola, SARS, and MERS for multiple vulnerable populations. Increasing mental health literacy of the public is vital to prevent the mental health crisis under the COVID-19 pandemic. Group-based cognitive behavioral therapy, psychological first aid, community-based psychosocial arts program, and other culturally adapted interventions were reported as being effective against the mental health impacts of COVID-19, Ebola, and SARS. Culturally-adapted, cost-effective, and accessible strategies integrated into the public health emergency response and established medical systems at the local and national levels are likely to be an effective option to enhance mental health response capacity for the current and for future infectious disease outbreaks. Tele-mental healthcare services were key central components of stepped care for both infectious disease outbreak management and routine support; however, the usefulness and limitations of remote health delivery should also be recognized.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 799-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haley R. Zettler ◽  
Amaia Iratzoqui

Although child maltreatment, mental illness, and substance abuse are significantly correlated, only the relationship between mental illness and substance abuse has been documented as potentially affecting the implementation of criminal justice policy. The current study considers the influence of child maltreatment histories in addition to mental health and substance abuse issues in predicting the success of participants in a large drug court in the Southwestern United States. Results indicated that child maltreatment was not predictive of overall court failure. However, child maltreatment had an indirect effect on type of failure, through its effects on mental illness and substance abuse diagnoses. Implications for these findings within drug court and for general criminal justice policy are discussed.


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