The ‘i belong in the LLB’ program: Animation and promoting law student well-being

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Duffy, James
Field, Rachael
Papparlardo, Kylie
Huggins, Anna
James, William
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2016
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Abstract

The empirical research on law student psychological well-being in Australia continues to grow in volume and sophistication.1 Law schools across the country remain indebted to the Jepson family, who engaged the Brain and Mind Research Institute (‘BMRI’) at the University of Sydney to conduct the first Australian empirical research into lawyer and law student mental health.2 In 2016, the wider Australian legal community can reflect on the resultant 2009 Courting the Blues report and appreciate not only the evidence base it established, but also what it led to: further empirical research on law student and lawyer well-being at different Australian law schools; frank conversations within law faculties about the pervasive and nuanced nature of law student psychological distress; a collegial and committed Wellness Network for Law with members from across the academy, the profession, and the student body; annual Wellness for Law Forums; and finally (and perhaps most importantly) a growing body of rigorous evidence and scholarship on which law faculties can base appropriate and justified action. This article argues that there is an imperative for curricular and extra-curricular strategies to support law students’ well-being, and highlights recent initiatives at QUT Law School designed to achieve this end. We explain the Law School’s approach to developing a program aimed at promoting law student well-being — the ‘I Belong in the LLB’ (‘I Belong’) program. In particular, our focus is on exploring one element of that program — the development of an animation as a tool to engage law students with the important issue of protecting their mental health. As a medium, animation has a number of inherent advantages when attempting to engage students with a sensitive topic.3 More broadly, it can also serve as an informative and symbolic organising feature of a law school wellness program. In our well-being program we have used animation as a means to an end — a way of engaging law students about the importance of mental health to the efficacy of their study, their lived tertiary experience and their future career in or beyond the law.

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Alternative Law Journal

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41

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1

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Law not elsewhere classified

Political Science

Law

Applied Ethics

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