The Mental Health and Wellness of Florida Lawyers Committee kicked off its first meeting of the year on Wednesday at the Bar’s Fall Meeting to lay out overarching goals for group.

There will be four subcommittees this year. Three of them are carryovers from a year ago: Communications, Education/Continuing Legal Education, and Judicial. There’s also a new subcommittee, Best Practices, which will be tasked with working with the other groups to create an attorney toolkit that President Scott Westheimer requested.

The goal of the toolkit is to create best practices for attorneys, and potentially firms, on how to “manage burnout and work life balances within the confines of the current practice of law,” said Committee Chair Rich Rivera in his opening comments.

“Our charge is not to go and suggest an overhaul to the way that law is practiced, but to equip attorneys with what we can to have them not suffer the fate that many of us here have suffered, and so many of our colleagues have,” he said.

To Rivera’s point, the bulk of the Zoom meeting was spent on introductions by the participants, including attorneys and judges, who shared personal details on their own struggles with mental health and substance use. Many said they had turned to talk therapy, yoga, and meditation to manage the stress in their lives and careers. A major theme of the call was reducing stigma.

In addition to creating the toolkit, the committee is dedicated to increasing the use of the Florida Lawyers Helpline (833-351-9355), a free and completely confidential service that connects members with professional counselors who work to help them overcome life’s challenges, balance priorities, and better handle both personal and professional pressures. Established three years ago, the helpline provides five free mental health sessions for members of the Bar as well as Florida Registered Paralegals. Usage is anticipated to double this year, according to the committee.

The committee’s second meeting will take place in January in-person at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando at the Bar’s Winter Meeting.

The Mental Health and Wellness Committee began in 2017 as a special panel and became permanent the following year.