Mental Health Awareness Week: Wellness at the Bar

This past week has been Mental Health Awareness week. In the spirit of being Aware of Mental Health, I found myself looking back at some statistics from last year’s Wellbeing at the Bar Report. It contains some interesting but unsurprising data:

• 34.9% of respondents indicated that they tended to feel down or low in spirits and of these, 23.7% reported low psychological wellbeing.
• 31.4% indicated they weren’t coping with their workload.
• Wellbeing was reported to be lower among women, barristers from an ethnic minority background and the younger and more junior members of the profession.
• Wellbeing was lowest among family and criminal practitioners and highest among commercial practitioners.
• a faint indication of positive progress – 73% of respondents agreed they had supportive colleagues and/or work environment, a rise of 6% compared to 2021.

These statistics are perhaps no more than confirmation of something that we have known instinctively – this is a tough profession, toughest for those in the most emotionally demanding and financially precarious areas. Even so, the numbers are stark. If the percentages alone don’t feel very real to you, I invite you to do some sums and consider them in the context of the number of members of your own chambers or organisation.

Everyone’s mental health is important and deserves to be taken seriously, but public conversations about mental health tend to focus on narratives involving less severe conditions and symptoms that the average person may find more relatable. Nearly everyone has at some point experienced feelings of low mood, anxiety, insomnia, exhaustion, hopelessness or grief, and (rightly or wrongly) we rely on these experiences to empathise with people experiencing clinical anxiety or depression. But mental health is a huge spectrum and if we really want to show awareness of mental health and combat stigma, we need to be prepared to talk about conditions that may feel more unfamiliar or severe, whether that looks like PTSD, bipolar disorder, suicidality, psychosis, or a personality disorder.

Our public conversations about mental health also betray a definite preference for stories with positive resolutions, where poor mental health exists as an obstacle to be overcome. Chronic and heavily stigmatised conditions or symptoms are harder to fit into the format of an inspirational LinkedIn post. That’s not to discourage anyone from seeking help or reaching out, but it’s important to acknowledge that often there is no magic bullet – plenty of mental health conditions require life-long management.

It is encouraging that the barristers surveyed about their wellbeing report are feeling more supported by their colleagues and work environments, but there is clearly still work to be done. Awareness is a good place start, but without action it can feel like lip-service. Unfortunately, I don’t have any brilliant suggestions for structural reforms to improve the mental health of barristers. For now,  perhaps we can take Mental Health Awareness Week as an invitation to take initiative and to train ourselves to provide as much informed non-judgmental support to our colleagues (particularly those from the most heavily affected demographics) as we can.

The following organisations may provide help and support with mental health:

Wellbeing at the Bar

Samaritans

Mind

Mental Health Foundation