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Accommodating Common Mental Health Issues In Mediation, Rebekah Doley

Rebekah Doley

Mediators have a responsibility to maximise an individual’s ability to effectively participate in the decision-making process, including supporting procedural fairness where equality and balance in the parties’ contributions to the process is expected. Capacity to participate effectively is affected by the presence of mental health concerns.Various means of screening for psychological distress in mediation participants have been discussed, however, there is limited training available to mediators from non-clinical professions in evaluating mental health issues. An alternative approach is to consider ways in which the mediation process could be modified to enhance an individual’s capacity to effectively participate, especially when the …