Doron Gold
Staff clinician,
Homewood Health
Ontario lawyers are lucky, in a sense. As members of the Law Society of Ontario (LSO), they can access free mental-health services through the Member Assistance Program, operated by Homewood Health. The program, funded by the LSO, is available at no cost to lawyers, law students, paralegals and their family members. Homewood offers in-person, phone and virtual counselling from psychotherapists across the province. (The downtown-Toronto location is situated at Yonge and Bloor.)
“There is no limit to the number of sessions that lawyers can book,” says Doron Gold, a staff clinician with the program. “For in-person appointments, wait times are extremely quick, usually only a day or two.” Lawyers can also call Homewood 24/7 to access a counsellor immediately. “Our goal is to create a safe place for people to call for help where they know their confidentiality is assured,” says Gold. “We’re very emphatic that when people call us, we hold their information sacrosanct.”
This story is part of the “How to Help” feature, from our Spring 2018 Issue.
Illustrations by Wenting Li