Mental health awareness at Hunters
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Over the last couple of months, I’ve been leading a team to curate a series of events at Hunters designed to raise awareness of the importance of mental health, and our first event will take place next week.
Each year, one in four people in England experience a mental health problem, and a survey by LawCare in 2021 indicated that a shocking 69% of people working in the legal sector had experienced mental ill-health. Risk of burnout was identified as being particularly high in the legal sector.
It’s so important that we feel comfortable talking about mental health, can identify when day-to-day stress is at risk of becoming something more serious, and know how to look after ourselves.
Our first event will therefore be a workshop on Stress and Burnout, where we will explore the causes of burnout and strategies to combat stress. It will be an interactive session, encouraging open discussions and sharing tips for maintaining mental well-being.
Later in March, I will be leading a conversation with Jodie Hill, a renowned campaigner and founder of Thrive Law, a specialist employment firm that pioneers new approaches to supporting staff with mental illness. I’ve learnt a great deal from my initial discussions with Jodie about how, in creating Thrive Law, she drew on her own experience of suffering a mental health breakdown following years of anxiety, panic attacks and PTSD, and it’s sure to be a really thought-provoking evening.
Our final event will be a book group discussion of Dr Lucy Foulke’s book 'What Mental Health Really Is... (and what it isn't)'. In the book, Dr Foulkes, who talks about her own experience of severe depression, explores the importance of maintaining a distinction between the normal negative emotions we all experience from time to time, and mental illness, arguing that we need to rethink the conversation around mental health. It should be a great way to round off our Mental Health Awareness events and to encourage further discussions and learning.
I’m so pleased that Hunters is supporting the EDI team to run these events and am looking forward to lots of interesting conversations with my colleagues!
