LawCare, the charity for the mental health and wellbeing of legal professionals from student to retirement, had its busiest year yet in 2018.
It welcomed 16 new volunteers and trained 45 helpline volunteers and peer supporters in Birmingham, London and Belfast. More than 900 people phoned the LawCare helpline, and peer supporters helped 27 people with issues such as anxiety, alcohol dependence, career development and work-related disciplinary issues. Its welfare fund for those of limited means helped 17 people in acute need access counselling.
The charity helps solicitors, barristers, barrister’s clerks, judges, Chartered Legal Executives, paralegals, trade mark attorneys, patent agents, costs lawyers and their staff and families. It added factsheets on bereavement, suicide and vicarious trauma to its library of information, and hosted 32 guest blog posts.
It also held roundtables on wellbeing in May and November, partnered with other organisations on wellbeing initiatives and ran three training sessions for lawyers on vicarious trauma.
