With little public notice, Maine has joined 40 other states to create an assistance program for lawyers and judges with problems of drug abuse, depression or other conditions that can impair their professional effectiveness.

The Maine Assistance Program for Lawyers and Judges has helped 150 individuals since it began operating in May 2003. Most of these participants are lawyers, but the total also includes some court officials and law students. Referrals are by the participant or sometimes by a fellow professional or a client. A team of psychiatrists, psychologists and consultants around the state provides assistance on short notice. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are sometimes involved. And a support group for stress, anxiety and depression will soon be established in Portland.

The director, David W. Key, a Bucksport lawyer, worked with an earlier, less formal program for 20 years. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court created the present program to provide easier access and quicker response. A key to the success of the program is confidentiality. Not even the governing board knows the identities of the individuals being helped. Both the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and the Maine Legislature have guaranteed confidentiality for the program including its volunteers. Specifically, they have excluded the program from the so-called “squeal rule,” which requires reporting any case of substance abuse by a lawyer to the Board of Bar Overseers.

Not all referrals point to problems that need treatment, but Mr. Key or a volunteer gets directly in touch with the person rather than causing talk and rumors by checking other sources. Financing thus far has come from lawyers’ annual contributions to a client liability fund. The modest $100,000 annual budget goes mainly for salary and travel expenses for Mr. Key, the director. Others on the staff are volunteers. Participants pay the health providers.

While about 10 percent of the general population has a substance abuse problem, the rate rises to 15 percent for lawyers. And a Johns Hopkins study found depression affects lawyers more than other professions. The biggest obstacle in getting a troubled lawyer into treatment is the lawyer’s experience in handling other people’s problems and thus can handle his or her own problem.

The program works so well that it raises the question of whether it could be a model for other professions and trades. Doctors in Maine have a somewhat similar program, but what about teachers or plumbers or foresters or fishermen – or even newspaper men

or women? Substance abuse and mental health problems are widespread and usually treatable. Confidential help should be only a phone call away.