Veterinary Visionaries Psychological Health and Safety Guidelines

A Renaissance for the Profession

By Coral Doherty, RVT, CPHSA, Makenzie Peterson, DSW, MSc, Philip Richmond, DVM, CAPP, CPHSA, CCFP

Spring 2022 was the genesis of Veterinary Visionaries™—a future-focused collaboration that convened for an online, crowd-sourced, problem-solving event to address increasingly pervasive, concerning issues related to mental and emotional health in the veterinary profession.

These guidelines—available to all at veterinaryvisionaries.org—signal a renaissance in the veterinary profession. The guidelines bridge the gaps between existing government workplace protections at the federal and state/provincial level, our current reality, and workplace settings where there is an intentional focus on providing ways to actively prevent harm, mitigate the known risks of the profession, and promote thriving in veterinary hospitals, organizations, and related organizational systems.

Exploring these new guidelines will lead you through the origin story of Veterinary Visionaries (VV) and into a body of work that provides insight into the language, framework, and world of Psychological Health and Safety.

You will find answers to questions such as what IS psychological health and safety? Why focus on this now? And why in veterinary medicine?

Creation of the Guidelines

As the founder of VV, AAHA recognized that effecting change requires convening a group of stakeholders in an environment that fosters productive discussion and problem-solving. AAHA enlisted the support of 50 other organizations serving the veterinary profession and promised to provide assistance to the task force responsible for executing the winning idea.

“AAHA is proud to have supported the development and project management of the volunteer task force that wrote the groundbreaking Psychological Health and Safety Guidelines for our veterinary ecosystem,” said AAHA CEO Garth Jordan.

Over a period of several months, a group of US and Canadian volunteers with a vested interest in the mental and emotional health of veterinary professionals formed a small Psychological Health and Safety Task Force. The task force was composed of individuals with diverse experience and expertise in veterinary medicine, well-being, positive psychology, social work, and psychological health and safety, which ensured a comprehensive and robust development process.

They collaborated to first gather, review, and integrate existing internationally implemented guidelines, standards, evidence-based practices, and resources. Next was an iterative process of synthesizing a veterinary-informed narrative and framework, including trauma-informed practices, into an outline of the required factors for a psychologically healthy and safe veterinary workplace. They were organized into three core categories: Organizational Culture, Workplace Experience, and Workplace Relationships, containing 11 Specific Foundational Guidelines.

This first version of Psychological Health and Safety Guidelines is presented with a strong organizational perspective. The intentions are threefold. First, to inspire organizations toward aspirational and actionable change. Second, to provide a framework highlighting the responsibilities of an organization and its leaders to both lead by example and provide the structure to empower employees to share in the co-creation of psychological health and safety. Finally, to spark critical conversations throughout the profession to improve the lives of veterinary professionals across the entire veterinary landscape.

The intent of this project is to ignite a transformation in the veterinary community, fostering a thriving workplace by fully embracing, integrating, and embodying these guidelines. Together, by adopting this level of accountability, the authors believe the material here can have a very positive impact and bring about a reimagined sense of vitality for the profession. You are invited to engage in this process by celebrating your current successes and personally championing one or more of the opportunities proposed within.

Read the full text of the guidelines at veterinaryvisionaries.org.

From the Authors

Guidelines authors Coral Doherty, RVT, CPHSA, Makenzie Peterson, DSW, MSc, and Philip Richmond, DVM, CAPP, CPHSA, CCFP, answered a few questions about the new Psychological Health and Safety Guidelines from Veterinary Visionaries. For more, check out the NEWstat article on aaha.org.

What would you tell someone who is about to read the guidelines?

Coral Doherty, RVT, CPHSA: Try and determine where your team is, in terms of their awareness of the factors that you are looking at. Celebrate what your staff is already doing well as a win. Then go from there and determine what their state of changeability is.

What can practices expect to see internally if they adopt these guidelines?

Makenzie Peterson, DSW, MSc: When leaders integrate and support aspects of psychological health and safety into their workplaces, they will start to see their team sharing new ideas, taking calculated risks and making mistakes, and greater transparency around feedback and accountability. All of this leads to greater workplace efficiency and innovation.

Why are these Psychological Health and Safety Guidelines important to you?

Philip Richmond, DVM, CAPP, CPHSA, CCFP: Knowing the impact that this has on not only our own well-being and job satisfaction but also seeing the impact that it has on patient care. One of our guidelines is civility and respect, and what’s fascinating is, when that’s not in place, how challenging it is to communicate effectively in a medical workplace.