Transcripts  - The Lawyer Assistance Program Experience, Part 1 
(5:30)

00:14 
Louis Buchhold, Case Manager, LAP (On-Camera)
People come to the LAP to get rehabilitation, so they can function in a healthy professional manner. 

Richard Carlton, Acting Director, LAP (On-Camera) 
We’re staffed entirely by licensed mental health professionals, the entire team. 

Louis Buchhold, Case Manager, LAP (Off & On-Camera)
The intake interview is where a participant gets to tell the case manager what is going on with them. 

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera) 
At the intake I expected that I was going to be charged. Before I walked in the door, but the case manager was spectacular. 

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera) 
The intake was extremely supportive and positive. 

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
It was the first empathy to my situation that I had felt, since getting a D.U.I. 

01:02 
Richard Carlton, Acting Director LAP (Off-Camera & On-Camera) 
A participants’ first three to four months in the program is what we refer to as the evaluation phase. It’s a time in which the participant gets to know their facilitator, their case manager, the other folks who are in their group. And it’s also the time when the staff both the group facilitators and the case managers learn to better understand each participant in their own individual struggles and issues.

The heart and soul of the LAP are our LAP groups that meet in communities throughout California. They are generally comprised of six to eight attorneys from the local community, who meet for an hour and a half and talk about mutual concerns and issues. 


Elana Clark-Faler, Group Facilitator, LAP (On-Camera)
There’s something powerful about people having people come together and say, “I get you. I’ve gone through that same thing, and you’re not alone.” 

01:59
Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
You have the ability to get the exposure to the support groups, and get the benefits of participation in a manner that exposes you to different ways of living your life. 

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
I can see in somebody else, something I do that I don’t see in myself. So by being with a group of people who have similar experiences, I can say “Oh, I do that to,” and learn from their experiences, as well as learning from mine. 

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
The notion is that if you be open to change, you may find that the change is beneficial. That’s what I found. 

Richard Carlton, Acting Director LAP (Off-Camera) 
The committee is a group of professionals who come together and meet with the participant, understand what their challenges and issues are…have input from the case managers, and the facilitators about what’s happening with that participant. And out of that meeting and process is formulated what’s called “The Participation Plan.”

Shannon Chavez, Clinical Consultant, LAP 
Often times the committee will ask the participant, “What is it that you think you need?” And when you clear away the rest of all the rivato, often times the participant what they see they need; is what we see they need. They may not want that, but we see the same thing and we have the same goal. 

03:16
Louis Buchhold, Case Manager, LAP (On-Camera)
The evaluation committee is not cort. A lot of attorneys think they are going to come in and they are going to be judged about what they’ve done in the past, or it’s a bad thing. And it’s not that at all. 


Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
I didn’t know what to expect, but they all turned out to be exactly what I was needing. 

Shannon Chavez, Clinical Consultant, LAP (On-Camera)
Our goal as a committee is really to give back, and make the most appropriate plan for a lawyer who doesn’t know where to go now. 


Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
I found the evaluation committee initially intimidating. Because A) I didn’t know what to expect. And B) there were all these people kind of staring at me, and analyzing me. 

04:00 
Shannon Chavez, Clinical Consultant, LAP (On-Camera)
You don’t have to take notes, you don’t have to bring a lawyer with you. You don’t have to defend your actions. We’re not here for any of that. We’re only here to say: “this is what is happening now, how can we help you move forward.” 

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
Looking back at it the experience was necessary for me to have guidance through a very transitional period in my life where I Had to really examine what I was doing with myself.   

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
It was just a focus on you hear things you really have to do. 

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
There was a lot of different people, with a lot of different experiences…all working to help give me guidance, and help me with improving my life.

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
I have not had a drink or a drug in well over three years.

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
It’s incredible, I have been away from bar requirements to do anything for about five years. And I still do all three, voluntarily…‘cause I think it’s so beneficial. 

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
Getting into LAP was the best thing that could ever happened to me. It changed my life immeasurably for the better. 

Former LAP Participant (On-Camera)
I endorse it because it is beneficial and it does work. 


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