Public Health is an integral part of global development, encapsulated in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3). ISLP is honored to have collaborated with the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and Guyana’s Ministry of Health to develop new national legislation that will bring greater attention and protection to mental health and suicide prevention as public health concerns.
Our recent efforts in Guyana were guided by the expertise of long-time ISLP volunteer Steven B. Datlof, M.D., J.D., a retired partner with Hogan Lovells. Steve’s credentials as both a psychiatrist and a lawyer make him uniquely qualified to support ISLP projects involving legislative drafting for the public health sector – particularly where the subject matter is mental health. Steve was part of a team of ISLP volunteers that advised the government of Guyana on the drafting of new laws on mental health and on suicide prevention. Reflecting the value of this work, PAHO subsequently suggested that the team develop a template suicide prevention law for use by other PAHO Member-States. Read more about Steve’s experience volunteering for ISLP below.
Tell us about your volunteer experience with ISLP. What drew you to the volunteer opportunity? What project(s) have you been involved in?
Through ISLP, a Hogan Lovells team led by Bob Leibenluft, Esq. and Phil Katz, Esq. has worked with Global South nations for over a decade to improve public health and health care laws. Because I am a psychiatrist in addition to an attorney, in 2011 I was asked to join the team to help Liberia draft a new, comprehensive mental health law, which was enacted by the Liberian legislature in 2015. In 2022, I was asked to help Guyana revise their mental health law and create a new law specifically about the prevention of suicide. These laws were enacted in the fall of 2022. In addition, at the request of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), we developed a “template” suicide prevention law, for use by other nations.
Is there a particular moment during the volunteer experience that stood out to you or that you have taken away as particularly significant?
The Hogan team traveled to Liberia in 2011 and 2012 to work directly with Liberian stakeholders and experts from the Carter Center on the mental health law. This experience allowed the team to help create a law that directly reflected the needs of the country and its people. Seeing first-hand the desperate need for mental health professionals in Liberia (at the time, there was one practicing psychiatrist in the entire country) encouraged me to take a part-time position treating patients in a mental health clinic in an underserved neighborhood in Philadelphia. I continued this work after retiring from Hogan Lovells in 2018.
What impact do you believe your ISLP experience has had? Why is ISLP’s work important?
The ISLP projects I worked on have addressed mental health issues of national importance in two countries. Internationally, the rate of suicide has been described as a serious public health concern. The possibility that the Guyanese law and the template suicide prevention law may form the basis for countries to reduce the intolerable number of preventable deaths by suicide underscores the impact of ISLP’s work.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I particularly enjoyed teaching and mentoring two teams of dedicated Hogan Lovells associates as part of my ISLP experience. The associates made key contributions to each project and developed skills applicable to future pro bono work.