Lawyers Helping Lawyers

Confidential Assistance
Options to Help Meet Your Needs

A Rhode Island Bar Association Member Benefit

Confidential assistance tailored to meet your needs.

Rhode Island Bar Association members and their dependents may receive free and confidential help, information, assessment and referral for personal concerns through the Association’s contract with Resource International Employee Assistance Services (RIEAS) and through the members of the Rhode Island Bar Association’s Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee. To discuss your concerns or those you may have about a colleague, you may call RIEAS, contact a Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee member, or use both resources.

The professionals at RIEAS provide confidential consultation for a wide range of personal concerns including but not limited to: balancing work and family, depression, anxiety, domestic violence, aging, grief, career satisfaction, alcohol and substance abuse, and problem gambling.

The Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee members choose this volunteer assignment because they understand the issues and want to help their peers find answers and appropriate courses of action. Committee members listen to your concerns, share their experiences, and offer advice and support.

Resource International Employee Assistance Services professional mental health counselors work with you to address your concerns.

Resource International Employee Assistance Services is a private, non-profit consulting service that ensures confidentiality and protects your privacy. Working with RIEAS is easy. Simply pick up the telephone and arrange an appointment with a personal health care consultant. At your initial appointment, your RIEAS Case Manager works with you to review your concerns and to develop a reasonable, and mutually agreed upon, course of action to address your issues.

Once you have decided on your action plan, your RIEAS Case Manager helps match you with the right resources. If treatment is part of your plan, your Case Manager draws on hundreds of skilled professionals and programs throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

RIEAS Case Manager services are completely free for you and your dependents. If you require the further services of private clinicians or treatment programs, your Case Manager helps you choose services in accordance with your existing medical benefits. In most cases, your medical benefits will cover all or a significant portion of counseling or treatment costs. If your family member does not have medical coverage, RIEAS and the Rhode Island Bar Association will work to secure free services or negotiate sliding scale fees or extended payments to help eliminate or reduce financial barriers to better health.

Your privacy is protected.

Since the Rhode Island Bar Association’s confidential assistance program is self-referred, your privacy is protected. Your records are kept in locked files under the sole custody of Resource International Employee Assistance Services. Your express written permission is required to release any information. RIEAS follows all state and federal laws regarding confidentiality.

Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee members provide assistance and support.

Before or during your contact with a RIEAS Case Manager, you may choose to seek peer assistance from a member of the Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee. Peer attorneys will lend an ear, share their experiences, and, if necessary, advise you on re-entering legal practice or accompany you to self-help meetings. Committee member attorneys have chosen this volunteer assignment because each has an understanding of impairments and a desire to help.

When seeking assistance from a Committee member, your privacy and professional standing are protected by law. In 1991, the Rhode Island Supreme Court issued changes to the Rules of Professional Conduct, giving members of the Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee immunity from suit, exception from the duty to disclose unprofessional conduct, and an obligation to confer with lawyers seeking help in confidence.

In 1995, the Supreme Court of Rhode Island authorized a disciplinary diversion program whereby some attorneys may seek treatment and avoid discipline if the attorney completes the prescribed program successfully. This program is run in conjunction with the Supreme Court Disciplinary Board.

Here is how to receive assistance.

Resource International Employee Assistance Services
Main Rhode Island Office:
120 Centerville Road, Warwick and four other Rhode Island locations
web site: www.rieashelp.com

You may telephone Resource International Employee Assistance Services and identify yourself as a Rhode Island Bar Association member seeking help. A RIEAS Case Manager will briefly discuss your concerns to determine if you are in a crisis situation and need immediate attention. If not, initial appointments are made within 24 to 48 hours at a location convenient to you.

To speak to a RIEAS Case Manager telephone:
401-732-9444 or toll-free;
1-800-445-1195 or 1-800-833-0453

The names and telephone numbers of the Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee members are published in every issue of the Rhode Island Bar Journal, and appear below:

Rhode Island Bar Association Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee Members

All Contact Completely Confidential