Veterinary Social Work: A solution to a profession in crisis
Providing veterinary and allied human health support services to people experiencing vulnerabilities.
Supporting a sustainable veterinary profession where healthy veterinary teams can thrive in a financially viable business.
Improving the health and wellbeing of the people who care for animals.
Supporting social hearted veterinary practice.
How can I be involved?
Join our mailing list
Donate to Cherished Pets Foundation
Visit Meraki Social Services and Cherished Pets
Follow Social Hearted Vet, Cherished Pets and Meraki Social Services
View our AVA Conference 2022 presentations
What is Veterinary Social Work (VSW)?
VSW is a new and emerging field in Australia. Veterinary Social Work utilises qualified Social Workers who have undertaken further training to recognise and consider the role that the human animal bond (HAB) plays in the lives of their clients as well as the specific stressors of veterinarians and their teams.
What Veterinary Social Work services are available?
Several organisations are working collaboratively to develop a range of resources that will bring Veterinary Social Work to every corner of Australia and ensure all communities enjoy the benefits of accessible, social-hearted veterinary care.
We’re building a community of human animal bond centred care practitioners.
Would you like to join our social hearted community and be the first to access future news, webinars and resources on VSW?
Veterinary Social Work: A Solution for a Profession in Crisis
The role of the human animal bond is becoming more valued across all sectors of our community. As we see a rise in social inequity, veterinary teams are also witnessing a deepening of the bond people share with animals and all the joy and pain that comes with this.
Capability in humans to maintain and manage the health and wellbeing of the animals in their care is being compromised – through financial, physical and psychological challenge.
The veterinary profession has unique stressors. Working within the human animal bond (HAB) where animals are increasingly included as family members, veterinary teams juggle the needs of the human, the animal and themselves.
In these complex situations, Veterinary teams often do not have the training, experience, capacity or support to provide the optimal outcome for both their client and their patient, which can lead to overwhelming pressures.
A solution to this rising crisis across our profession, and in the community more broadly, is providing a collaborative, multi-disciplinary veterinary model of care that is community-centred and financially sustainable for the long term.
The veterinary social worker role is fundamental to supporting this social hearted veterinary practice model.
What is Veterinary Social Work (VSW)?
VSW is a new and emerging field in Australia.
Veterinary Social Work utilises qualified Social Workers who have undertaken further training to recognise and consider the role that the HAB plays in the lives of their clients as well as the specific stressors of veterinarians and their teams.
VSW can provide practical interventions with clients to support treatment decisions, grief and loss, mental health, and challenging behaviours.
Understanding veterinarian-specific support for wellness such as debriefing, setting boundaries with clients, self-care, adaptive coping techniques and mental health support creates healthy working veterinary teams.
Bringing a social work lens to working with vets, their teams, and human-animal families can support all aspects of this important bond to improve both human and animal wellbeing.
What Veterinary Social Work services are available?
Several organisations in Australia are working collaboratively to develop a range of resources that will bring Veterinary Social Work to every corner of Australia and ensure all communities enjoy the benefits of accessible, social-hearted veterinary care.
Currently, Cherished Pets implements a veterinary social work service in Victoria with a VSW team embedded into the practice model. They are available to provide remote assistance and can be contacted through Dr Lissi at drlissi@socialheartedvet.com.
Meraki Social Work Services offers a page of resources and information for vets interested in Veterinary Social Work that can be viewed here.
The next phase for VSW in Australia will involve development of a “Toolkit” of further resources that can be utilised in practice by Veterinary teams – providing resources and information on allied human health support available locally for their clients and also the veterinary team themselves.
As VSW capacity is increased, remote support will become available more widely through email, phone and video modalities.
Ultimately, Veterinary Social Workers will be available to visit practices and clients in person, delivering their services to:
- Clients (individually through case management or in group sessions)
- Vet teams (individually or in groups).
Veterinary Social Workers can also become embedded in a practice or group of practices.
Still have questions for us?
Dr Lissi Kennedy
Founder Cherished Pets & Social Hearted Vet
drlissi@socialheartedvet.com
+61 439 094 379
Dr Robyn Whitaker
Veterinary Social Work Advocate
admin@socialheartedvet.com
Dr Lisa Deering
Cherished Pets Vet Business Manager
lisa@cherishedpetcare.com.au
+61 425 753 097
THE SOCIAL HEARTED VET 