Winter 2016 SBAND Gavel | Page 4

SBAND PRESIDENT FIT TO PRACTICE JOSEPH WETCH SBAND President As we move through the first months of this new year, I want to encourage you to make health and wellness a priority in 2016. Many of us entered the legal profession to serve and help others. But more often than not this has meant making sacrifices. When we put our clients above our own health and wellness, the damage we do to ourselves can also be a detriment to our ability and fitness to practice. A recent survey by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and the American Bar Association revealed that more than 20 percent of lawyers had drinking habits that were considered potentially alcohol dependent. This is three times higher than problem drinking rates of the general public. Another study, this one by the Centers for Disease Control, ranked lawyers as more than three times more likely to suffer from depression, due in part from overwhelming stress and the poor health that accompanies it. Combine stress and a sedentary lifestyle and health issues like high choleste ɽ