SBAND PRESIDENT
FIT TO PRACTICE
JOSEPH WETCH
SBAND President
As we move through the first months of this
new year, I want to encourage you to make
health and wellness a priority in 2016.
Many of us entered the legal profession to
serve and help others. But more often than
not this has meant making sacrifices. When
we put our clients above our own health and
wellness, the damage we do to ourselves can
also be a detriment to our ability and fitness
to practice.
A recent survey by the Hazelden Betty
Ford Foundation and the American Bar
Association revealed that more than 20
percent of lawyers had drinking habits
that were considered potentially alcohol
dependent. This is three times higher than
problem drinking rates of the general public.
Another study, this one by the Centers for
Disease Control, ranked lawyers as more
than three times more likely to suffer from
depression, due in part from overwhelming
stress and the poor health that accompanies
it. Combine stress and a sedentary lifestyle
and health issues like high choleste ɽ