The Alberta Lawyers
Assist Program is a non-profit society whose membership consists
of current or former lawyers interested in helping lawyers with
personal problems. Its business affairs are conducted by an
independent volunteer Board of Directors elected on an annual
basis. Assist receives funding from the Alberta Branch of the
Canadian Bar Association, the Alberta Lawyers Insurance
Association and private donations, but there are no strings
attached to the funding. All services provided are completely
confidential and the operations of Assist are wholly independent
from its funders.
Assist is designed to provide assistance,
counselling or referral services to all Alberta lawyers,
students-at-law and their close family members for all manner of
personal problems including stress, burnout, depression, marital
issues, psychological issues, financial issues and addictions.
Services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. Professional counselors employed by Kelly Luttmer &
Associates respond to all calls and provide an expert analysis of
the issues and problems, make appropriate referrals for treatment
and provide limited counselling. Generally up to 5 hours of
service per referral are provided at no cost to the lawyer.
Assist currently handles in excess of 150
referrals per annum. This represents a very small percentage of
the Alberta Bar. The categories change from time to time but in
recent years approximately 10% of the referrals deal with
substance abuse issues, 15%-20% marital issues, 20%-30% family or
psychological issues and 10%-15% stress and burnout.
Statistics indicate that lawyers generally
suffer from alcohol abuse, depression and suicide at a
significantly greater rate than the general population. Statistics
also show that a small percentage of such sufferers ever seek or
obtain help for their problems. Fortunately, lawyers who do seek
and receive help for their problems can, and most often do,
recover. A study was conducted in Oregon about 10 years ago of 100
lawyers who went into their Assist Program for substance abuse
problems. Over 60% of those lawyers had discipline problems or
negligence claims at the time of their referral. After a year of
treatment less than 2% of the lawyers had such problems.
The Assist Program believes that it is vital to
bring help to a much higher percentage of lawyers than in the
past. The Board has approved a number of initiatives to try and
accomplish that goal including, an increased presence in
professional publications, sponsoring luncheons for students-at-
law during the Bar Admission courses in Edmonton and Calgary, an
application to obtain charitable status, the presentation of
wellness programs and serious consideration of hiring a full time
Executive Director.
We hope to convince our funders that a good
economic case can be made for the employment of an Executor
Director. Utilization rates of Assist Programs in jurisdictions
with a full time executive director are several times greater than
in Alberta. Increased usage in turn, can result in significant
cost savings in respect of discipline and negligence claims and,
more importantly, will save lives.
If you would like more information or would like to participate
as a volunteer, please feel free to contact
me at any time.
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