Impairment or Substance Abuse Attorney

What to do and where to go when you have an impairment issue? Yesterday seemed to be a day where I spoke to many different people about impairment. I spent a great deal of time speaking to one of my law partners, Jeff McDonald (I think he is incredibly knowledgeable about substance abuse, recovery and professionals and I am not the only person who thinks this). I listened as Jeff McDonald explained our firm's stance toward substance abuse and mental illness: We represent many impaired professionals, doctors, nurses, and other health care providers before their respective boards. We believe that substance abuse and mental illness are diseases and that as the lawyer for a health care provider, it is our job to do what is best for the individual. Sometimes that involves getting the provider into treatment immediately if their disease has gotten the best of them. Some attorneys will appear before regulatory boards, such as the Medical Board or Nursing Board, and deny the disease. We do not believe that this approach is in the best interest of the licensee.

So, why am I posting this information? I also had a conversation yesterday regarding how many nurses do not see addiction or mental illness as diseases, but rather a personality choice or defect and how this perception is hindering providing much needed support for their colleagues. Currently, physicians, physician assistants and acupuncturists have private, non-disciplinary rehabilitation orders that allow these professionals to get treatment but not to be punished for it. Nurses have not been able to get the same option. Now, there are steps being considered to take the rehabilitation order away from those professions that do have it. We need to fight to get the best options available to professionals to help them obtain the help they need without the stigma and punishment attached. When professionals are punished rather than supported, it does not improve the practice and it definitely does not protect the public, it forces professionals to NOT seek treatment for fear of punishment. When employers refuse to hire a nurse because she is in TPAPN or under a Board Order for monitoring, they are sending a message to those nurses thinking about getting help - "If you are responsible and seek treatment, you will not have a job." This causes the nurse to choose his/her work over his/her treatment of the disease. We can stop this and we can make our practice safer by understanding and supporting our colleagues that need help.