21 www.loubar.org May 2026 MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES Support for you, your colleagues and your clients. NEED HELP NOW? Call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (24/7, free, confidential) Text HOME to 741741 Crisis Text Line (24/7 support) LOUISVILLE & KENTUCKY Seven Counties Services 24/7 Crisis Support 502-589-4113 (Adult) 502-589-8070 (Child) Wellspring Crisis Stabilization Short-term residential care 502-584-2870 FindHelpNowKY.org & Dial 211 Community resources and referrals Louisville Metro Crisis & Deflection Call 911 and request “deflection” Non-emergency: 502-574-7111 (option 5) University of Louisville Hospital Emergency psychiatry 502-562-3100 University of Louisville Hospital Emergency psychiatry 502-562-3100 FOR THE LEGAL COMMUNITY Kentucky Lawyer Assistance Program (KYLAP) 502-564-3795 | kylap.org ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance www.americanbar.org/groups/lawyer_assistance Wayne Corp Employee Assistance Program [email protected] | 502-451-8262 | www.waynecorp.com NATIONAL RESOURCES NAMI Helpline 800-950-6264 | Text NAMI to 741741 SAMHSA National Helpline 800-662-HELP (4357) | Text your zip code to 435748 SPECIALIZED SUPPORT The Trevor Project (LGBTQ+) 866-488-7386 | Text START to 678678 RAINN (Sexual Assault) 800-656-HOPE (4679) | www.rainn.org Human Trafficking Hotline 800-373-7888 | Text HELP to 233733 WHEN TO REACH OUT Feeling overwhelmed, anxious or burned out. Struggling with substance use. Supporting a colleague or client in crisis. Not in crisis, but need to talk. Reaching out is a strong first step. Support is available - confidential, professional and ready when you are. Legal Support Staff Are Not Okay Either When the legal profession talks about mental health — and it is finally starting to, more seriously than before — the conversation almost always centers around attorneys. That’s understandable. Lawyers face high-pressure work, significant ethical obligations and a pro- fessional culture that has historically treated struggle as a character flaw. But it leaves out the people sitting in the same offices, answering the same calls and working on the same difficult case files: paralegals, legal assistants, receptionists, billing staff, investi- gators and office administrators. The people who keep law practices running. Legal support staff absorb an enormous amount. They hear the distressed clients. They manage scheduling around crises. They read the documents, organize the files and prepare the materials in cases involving violence, abuse, financial devastation and loss. They do this work, often without the professional training, peer networks or compensation that attorneys receive, and they come back and do it again the next day. Repeated exposure to traumatic content is a recognized occupational hazard with a name: secondary traumatic stress. It doesn’t require direct involvement in a traumatic event to take hold. Exposure through documentation, client contact or case material is enough. The symptoms look a lot like primary trauma: intrusive thoughts, emotional numbness, difficulty sleeping, cynicism and a growing sense of dread going into work. The legal profession hasn’t built many structures to address this in support staff. There are no mandatory well-being requirements for paralegals. Many staff members don’t know whether they have access to EAP resources, or where to find them. And because well-being conversa- tions in many legal workplaces still default to attorneys, staff often don’t feel permission to name what’s happening. That needs to change. And it can start with small, concrete things. If you’re in a leadership or supervisory role: • Check in with your staff — not about deadlines, about them. A two-minute conversation that isn’t about work output signals that they’re seen as people, not functions. • Make sure support staff know what mental health resources they can access. EAP programs and community mental health resources should be easy to find, not buried in an onboarding packet from three years ago. The LBA offers an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for your firm through The Wayne Corporation. The EAP provides confidential support services, including counseling and resources, to help members manage personal and work-related challenges effectively. Visit https://www.loubar.org/ member-benefits/ to learn more. • Watch for the quiet signs. Disengagement, increased errors, a shortened fuse, frequent illness, difficulty making decisions. These can all indicate someone running on empty. Address it early and directly. If you’re a member of legal support staff: • What you carry at work is real. The fact that it doesn’t come with a bar number doesn’t make it lighter. • You are allowed to use whatever mental health resources your employer provides. You are allowed to name when something is hard. And you are allowed to draw a line on what you take home with you — mentally and physically — at the end of the day. n
