Justin Mattingly reports:
The state agency that oversees qualifications for the Virginia State Bar will no longer ask students to disclose mental health treatment on their applications.
In the spring, law students from across the state organized and sent letters to the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners asking it to eliminate a portion of the application that prompts the disclosure of mental health conditions, saying that students who need mental health counseling aren’t getting it out of fear that they will be denied admission to the state bar.
“It was a barrier to treatment,” said Gray O’Dwyer, a University of Richmond law school alumna who helped lead the effort. “It was reinforcing the stigma that if you seek treatment for any sort of mental health concern, it will come back to haunt you.”
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