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Dispelling Five Common Myths About Mental Health
Did you know that almost half of adults have had a decline in their mental health since the start of the pandemic? In fact, mental health problems are on the rise worldwide and across all demographics. This makes Mental Health Awareness Month an especially important reminder to tune in to and talk about our mental […]
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Defining Futile Care and Its Impact on Wellbeing in Veterinary Medicine
As an emergency and critical care specialist, I can wholeheartedly attest to providing futile care to patients whose owners who would not consent to euthanasia or discontinuation of intensive care. I remember one dog in particular who had a collapsing trachea that was stented and then had progression of his disease resulting in laryngeal and […]
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Five Simple Steps for Responding to Negative Online Reviews
There’s nothing that compares to that sick sinking feeling that we experience when we see a 1-star online review. These reviews are often filled with CAPS LOCK words and proclamations starting with “never” (e.g., “never going back…”, “never recommend…”, “never again…”). Many things shared in negative online reviews are exaggerated, over-emphasized, or just plain false, […]
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Five Tools to Help Veterinary Caregivers Stay Resilient During the Coronavirus Pandemic
These are truly unprecedented times. Even the most seasoned of veterinary professionals have not experienced our “new normal”. From streamlining services to only what is considered urgent, emergent, or essential to physical distancing from clients by providing consultations by phone or video, veterinary practice life has shifted in ways we could not have imagined just […]
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Are you using coping strategies as self-care?
At a time when burnout, moral stress, compassion fatigue, and suicide are dominating conversations regarding wellbeing in the veterinary industry, self-care has been broadly advocated as a necessary practice for veterinary care providers. However, the definition of self-care seems to vary depending on who you ask; what many consider self-care practices are more accurately regarded […]
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Why we need to be careful how we talk about suicides among veterinary professionals
Hardly a week goes by when I don’t receive a Google alert or see some glaring headline about suicides in the veterinary profession. Even Time Magazine has weighed in on this heavy topic with a headline that reads “Veterinarians face unique issues that make suicide one of the profession’s biggest worries”. But while we are […]
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How to fix five things stopping veterinary professionals from practicing self-care
It seems that whenever I present a keynote on self-care or mention self-care in a webinar, someone in the audience asks, “but what if you can’t practice self-care”? In the beginning I was perplexed by this comment and asked, “what do you mean, you can’t”? I was then presented with a barrage of reasons that […]
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Ten Tips for Staying Well This Holiday Season
The holidays are here and while this time of year is exciting and energizing for many people, it can be exhausting and illness-provoking for others. While most people feel happiness, love, and other positive emotions over the holidays, the American Psychological Association recognizes that those emotions are usually accompanied by feelings of stress, sadness, irritability, […]
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Stop Being a Martyr and Start Modeling Healthy Behavior
It is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to instilling wellness into the veterinary profession…veterinary care providers who would rather be a martyr than model good behavior for their colleagues and staff. I’ve seen it all too often: the veterinarian who always stays late to see the end-of-the-day emergency, the technician who […]
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10 Tips for Improving Your Sleep Hygiene
Approximately 1 in 3 people struggle with insomnia, which is the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep at least three nights per week during which adequate sleep is possible. I am no exception to this statistic and have struggled with insomnia off and on throughout my adult life. Most of the time, insomnia occurs […]
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Three things that you can do to help reduce the rate of suicide among veterinary professionals
A serious stigma regarding mental health exists in the veterinary profession and it’s time for it to stop. Much of the discussion regarding mental health in the veterinary profession recently has focused on ways to reduce the high rate of suicide, which is 2.5 to 3.5 times more common among male and female veterinarians than […]
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I welcome the day when we can say “I’m taking a leave for my mental health”
I remember when I was an assistant professor at the University of Guelph Ontario Veterinary College and struggling to maintain my mental health. I have a longstanding history of depression and anxiety and after just four years on faculty I was experiencing burnout. This was long before my foray into veterinary wellbeing and I did […]
