Mental Illness.

While technology may be the wave of the future for the practice of law, it is a terrible idea for addressing the treatment of mental illness and related issues that affect lawyers at alarmingly growing rates.

I would like to know on what basis The Florida Bar decided to endorse eVideo Counselor to provide mental health services to lawyers who suffer from mental health afflictions. More pointedly, what criteria, apart from perhaps a sales presentation, were employed to determine whether it is even appropriate to deliver mental health counseling in this way?

Depression is not a one-size-fits-all condition, and its management depends on the expertise of the therapist and his or her unfettered opportunity to observe the patient in an environment conducive to achieving clinical objectives. The "counseling on the go" approach marketed by eVideo Counseling sounds more like the Home Shopping Network than serious treatment for mental illness. Selling the convenience of therapy from the "office, home, or even when travelling" may even prove to be counterproductive. Furthermore, emphasizing the anonymity and confidentiality of eVideo Counseling misleadingly implies that traditional counseling is somehow less than fully confidential or that it exposes the patient to something less than complete privacy. And if confidentiality is a concern, I'll gladly take my chances with a professional who practices where I live and whose reputation for discretion and clinical competence can be readily ascertained rather than someone in a remote location who may be hundreds of miles or more removed from any meaningful inquiry.

Instead of treating mental health service providers like any other vendor, perhaps the Bar could consider other approaches that might include creating networks of local attorneys and mental health professionals in all 67 counties or maybe even help subsidize the cost of psychiatric or psychotherapeutic services for attorneys in crisis who may not be able to afford the full cost of care. Or perhaps, as a profession, begin to look deeply into the root causes of mental illness in the very nature of the contemporary practice of law, starting with the state's law schools. Even the sheer number of...