NCBA Expands Availability Of BarCARES Coverage

Article Date: Friday, January 15, 2010

Written By: Russell Rawlings

The North Carolina Bar Association is now making BarCARES counseling services available to NCBA members not otherwise covered thanks to a two-year pilot program adopted by the NCBA Board of Governors in October.

 

The program targets those members who either do not currently have access to BarCARES through local bar associations, judicial district bars and law schools, or do not have existing health insurance coverage which, by law, is now required to include a mental health component.

 

The pilot program took effect Jan. 1, and will be reviewed after one year.

 

BarCARES President Robert N. Hunter Jr., who serves on the N.C Court of Appeals, presented the proposal. He estimated that some 4,000 NCBA members who are not currently covered would now be able to access the counseling services provided by HRC to help them deal with various personal, family and work-related issues.

 

The confidential, short-term intervention program is designed to provide no-cost assistance to members and their immediate families. Counseling services provided through BarCARES include crisis intervention and treatment for depression, anxiety and substance abuse (drug and alcohol).

 

Career counseling, as well as case-related stress and conflict resolution, are also among the services provided. The BarCARES Hotline is always open at 1-800-640-0735, and the services it provides are delivered 24/7 in a professional, confidential manner.

 

Adoption of the pilot program, Hunter noted, will enable BarCARES to help North Carolina attorneys who otherwise may not receive the counseling and treatment they need, especially in these stressful economic times.

 

"The biggest risk for suicide and alcoholism is not with the young attorneys," Hunter said. "It is by and large among middle age men who have been practicing a good while."

 

Attorneys in rural areas are also often at risk, Hunter said, because they may feel as though assistance simply is not within reach. With BarCARES, licensed, privately engaged therapists are but a phone call away.

 

Now that the pilot program is in place, the NCBA will join with BarCARES in an effort to spread the word statewide about the importance of providing services such as this.

 

"Our goal is to get members of bar associations in the smaller districts to sell their districts on the program"

 

The BarCARES program is made possible by generous grants from the North Carolina Bar Association, the NCBA Foundation Endowment and Lawyers Insurance Agency, and made available local bar groups, judicial district bars and law schools that have opted in to the program.

 

Additional information regarding BarCARES is readily accessible via the homepage of the NCBA Web site, www.ncbar.org, where it is prominently denoted.