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This blog will be a little different to my other posts. Instead of answering a medical question about your pets, I’d like to talk about something beyond medicine. January 30th is Let’s Talk Day, and, regardless of the corporate branding, the day does have a very positive and important meaning behind it, which is, according to their website: “to promote mental health education, research awareness, and ending social stigma”. Therefore, I will take the opportunity to discuss the current state of mental health in the veterinary field, and how we as staff and clients alike can improve things.
What the average client may not be aware of, is that this career is incredibly rewarding and also incredibly difficult! This dichotomy is what draws people to become vets. We are generally very caring people, overachievers, and personally invested in everything we do. We are often perfectionists in a world where perfection is unobtainable. It is not just a job or a career, but a lifestyle! We work long-hours, deal with difficult medical and interpersonal situations on a daily basis, and, although not an important aspect: our salaries amount to fractions of what our counterparts in human medicine are paid. Although, I speak from experience and through the veterinarian point of view, the same could easily describe technicians and all the support staff.
Several studies and surveys have been published on mental health concerns in the veterinary profession. To present their findings, I’ll combine the results from a survey of over 10,000 vets in the USA in 2014 and a second one of over 11,000 vets in 2016.
Roughly 10% of veterinarians (6.8% male, 10.9% female) are currently experiencing psychological distress – this is around 2.5 times the average adult.
Roughly 1 in 3 vets experienced at least one depressive episode since graduating from veterinary school.
Roughly 14% of male and 19% of female veterinarians experienced suicidal thoughts at some point after graduation.
More telling is the unfortunate finding that only 19% of veterinarians reported that they were currently receiving treatment for a mental health condition.
The situation has become so widespread in the last decade, that the surveys also found that only 41% of veterinarians overall and only 24% of vets under the age of 34 would recommend pursuing a career in veterinary medicine. 13% of vets were thinking of leaving the profession altogether. In contrast, a 2005 study found that 76% of vets overall recommended the profession. This highlights a sharp decline in just 10 years.
Although I don’t want to be overly simplistic, I believe there are two main reasons why veterinarians are exceedingly leaving the profession, and experiencing a decrease in general well-being: compassion fatigue/stress, and, to put it bluntly, bullying.
Compassion fatigue isn’t a strictly veterinary problem, as it is experienced by all healthcare professionals. It is described as “the emotional residue and strain of being exposed to those with trauma”. It is the stress arising from the job itself. As I described before, the average vet is very caring, overachieving, and becomes easily invested in things. We have a tendency of becoming overly attached to our patients, and clients, even though we shouldn’t. When a patient’s health declines, we take it personally, even though we shouldn’t. We overcommit, and consciously accept reducing our well-being for the sake of our patients and clients, even though we shouldn’t! But that’s who we are! On top of all this, we are expected to hide our emotions. On any given day, we can go from a emotionally draining euthanasia to a new puppy vaccine consultation within minutes. This, day in and day out, can take its toll.
Compassion fatigue is only one side of the stress “coin”. Whereas compassion fatigue can be described as stress from WHAT we do, there is the stress that comes from WHERE we work as well. An online survey of vets in 2015 found that difficult clients (21%) and time management issues (23%) were the 2 biggest factors for stress on the job, outranking things like euthanasia and critically-ill patients.
Dr Beth Davidow described it best in her article on “Burnout in Veterinary Medicine”:
The stress of time management and dealing with client issues for veterinarians is a reflection of frustration with lack of control over flow and systems in their workplaces. When we get home late yet again due to problems with hospital flow that we don’t have the power to fix, we get annoyed. When we feel like we can’t treat the case in front of us well because we don’t have enough staff, we disagree with the pricing structure, or because we are dealing with equipment issues, we start to feel like maybe it isn’t worth it. (https://vetidealist.com/burnout-veterinary-medicine/)
The last topic I want to address is what can be described as “emotional blackmail”. There isn’t a vet who hasn’t heard things from clients such as: “vets are only in it for the money”, “I can’t afford this can’t you help me out?”, “I thought you love animals”. Let me just say that the large majority of clients do not do this, but it is hard to not dwell on the negatives. I have been guilty many times of taking these comments personally, even though things were either out of my control, or completely false! I consider these comments to constitute emotional blackmail, or even bullying. When I started as a vet I thought the profession was respected, and revered. Instead we are bombarded by 1-star google reviews, complaints, and accusations. Even the few instances in a career can carry a heavy burden. People who are drawn to veterinary medicine are generally highly motivated and put a lot of stress on themselves, therefore even 1 bad comment can eat away at us!
So now, the question is: how can we improve things? Well it’ll have to come from all sides. Before posting that bad review or using emotional blackmail, think about the vet and the staff on the other side! As clients, you have the power to make a difference simply by saying “thank you”! For vets, and anyone in the profession feeling depressed or fatigued, it is important to seek help! We need to get rid of the stigma that seeking help means we’re less strong for it. Being a vet shouldn’t have to mean we ignore our own well-being for anything. Below this article I have listed a few references on mental health. Remember, on January 30th (and every other day), Let’s Talk!
www.loveyourpetloveyourvet.com.au
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