20 PEOPLE | LEGAL SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY INSIGHT 2016 PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AusLSA members are among the highest performing and most successful law firms in Australia and the world. Law firms that reach the top rely on their people to consistently function at their best and produce an extremely high-standard of work. Just like all elite performers, for lawyers to perform at their best they need to be managed sustainably and within their limits of resilience. Anecdotal evidence about the amount of time lawyers spend working and the pressures that they endure to meet the expectations of their clients and standards of their employers suggests a higher proportion of lawyers may be exposed to illness when their resilience to stress is exceeded. Workplace psychosocial risks are a key influence on our physical, mental and social health. Studies show that mental ill-health is the third most common source of disease burden after cancers and heart disease and is the major cause of disability in Australia. Studies have shown that one third of lawyers and one fifth of barristers suffer a disability or distress due to depression. The Mental Health First Aid Manual also tells us that around sixty percent of depression is undiagnosed and untreated. The 2016 Insights Report by Global Corporate Challenge In Australia over six million working days are lost annually through untreated depression. Estimates put the cost of lost productivity from absenteeism at about $10,000 per year for each employee with untreated depression. In 2016 Gallup found that the cost of presenteeism is 10 times higher, with around seventy percent of the Australian workforce either ambivalent or completely disengaged from work. FORMAL POLICY PUBLISHED POLICY 88% 29% 6% 67% 6% 4% Yes Yes No No Not Reported Not Reported POLICY PUBLISHED