March 27, 2022 • 42 mins
**Content warning: discussion of mental health and self harm**
In this week's episode of the Pet Owner Diary Show, Co-Host Tay Shoemaker talks with Elizabeth Chosa, a founder of the Veterinary Hope Foundation. Have you ever wondered about your veterinarian’s life outside of helping your pets? Elizabeth tells about the mental difficulties pet health professionals face and how the VHF helps support those that care for our animals. You don’t wanna miss this informative hour with the Mother Of Frogs on the POD Show!
Guest Links:
Website:https://veterinaryhope.org/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/veterinaryhope?utm_medium=copy_link
@verterinaryhope
Facebook: https://instagram.com/veterinaryhope?utm_medium=copy_link
Donate here: https://crm.bloomerang.co/HostedDonation?ApiKey=pub_d99a52c1-d03b-11eb-b1fa-060cfd9bde37&WidgetId=15360
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
In this week's episode of the Pet Owner Diary Show, Co-Host Tay Shoemaker talks with Elizabeth Chosa, a founder of the Veterinary Hope Foundation. Have you ever wondered about your veterinarian’s life outside of helping your pets? Elizabeth tells about the mental difficulties pet health professionals face and how the VHF helps support those that care for our animals. You don’t wanna miss this informative hour with the Mother Of Frogs on the POD Show!
Guest Links:
Website:https://veterinaryhope.org/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/veterinaryhope?utm_medium=copy_link
@verterinaryhope
Facebook: https://instagram.com/veterinaryhope?utm_medium=copy_link
Donate here: https://crm.bloomerang.co/HostedDonation?ApiKey=pub_d99a52c1-d03b-11eb-b1fa-060cfd9bde37&WidgetId=15360
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary Podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny,
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type
of pet. Now here's your host, America's Pet Owner Coach, Janelle Young.
(00:21):
Welcome back to the Pet Owner DiaryShow. My name is Tashuemaker and
I will be your co host today. Thank you so much for joining us.
We have a very powerful episode aheadand just to be safe, I
want to add a small content warningas we will be discussing hard topics like
mental health and suicide. So tostart us off, I want to ask
(00:42):
you all a questions, just somethingto keep in your mind while we talk
to our guest today. How welldo you think you know your veterinarian.
When we take our pets to theclinic, we only get to see one
side of our friendly vetex and petprofessionals. Being an animal doctor is just
(01:03):
as hard as being a human one, and no one knows the animal medical
field better than today's guest. She'sone of the founders of the Veterinary Hope
Foundation, a season veterinarian and petmom the wonderful Elizabeth Josaph is here with
us today. Welcome Elizabeth, howare you hi? Thank you? I
am so happy to be here.I really appreciate you caring about veterinarians and
(01:26):
about the Veteranals Foundation. Of course, thank you for being here, so
pet family. For those of youwho may have never heard of the Veterinary
Hope Foundation, or VHF as wemay call it today, this is an
organization for veterinarians to get mental healthsupport as the field can be quite difficult.
So Elizabeth, could you elaborate onwhat the Veterinary Hope Foundation's mission is?
(01:52):
Sure? Our goal is just tobring hope and help to veterinarians,
to normalize the struggles they may besing and give them the resources and the
community support they need, just tohelp the career path be more sustainable,
more enjoyable, and hopefully help themcontinue long, fulfilling careers as veterinarians.
Amazing and I've personally never heard ofa nonprofit quite like VHF. Your cause
(02:19):
is super unique. What made y'allwant to start a mental health foundation for
veterinarians specifically, Well, you know, our profession is a really challenging one,
and we are full of perfectionists andwe are almost uniformly highly sensitive people
by nature. So even though justbeing a veterinarian, you know, it's
(02:42):
impossible to do that without some challenges. Most veterinarians tend to suffer in silence
and isolation, and if they doneed help, that is often seen as
a sign of weakness rather than strength. And so we feel like it's really
important just to talk about it,to normalize the struggles and to make sure
that people have the mental health supportthey need so that they continue to thrive.
(03:05):
Right, that's amazing, And somepeople may wonder if this is something
that bets really need or why exactlyit's needed. You know, doctors who
work with humans go through so muchas well, and it's easy to justify
them needing mental health wellness help becausewe can identify with them, but we
also see their struggles openly through medialike medical shows. Bets often don't have
(03:29):
such an open experience representation. Andyou and I know that being a veterinarian
is hard, just as hard asbeing a human doctor. But what would
you say to those questioning the importanceof vhf's mission. Yeah, so you
know, I understand why people questionthe need of a lot of kids think
they want to be veterinarians, andit seems like it's a really fun,
(03:52):
easy job that you just play withpuppies and kittens all day long. Of
course, the reality is totally differentbehind the scenes and is much more difficult
than you could possibly imagine if you'renot in the profession, and it's gotten
even harder with the pandemic. Thereason we need this is because we really
are a profession of people in crisisto some degree. I have personally lost
(04:14):
three wonderful classmates to suicide. Mostof the vets I know have been touched
in one way or another by amental health crisis, either with a colleague
or sometimes with themselves. And evenif suicide and mental health crisis isn't part
of it, just the day today challenges of being a veterinarian and a
rapidly changing field can get so overwhelmingsometimes that people are choosing to leave the
(04:36):
profession. So we have a realloss of clinicians over the last five to
ten years, so much so thatsometimes people don't have access to veterinary care
or they have to wait hours andhours for care simply because there aren't enough
veterinarians available to treat animals right now, and it's a real crisis, and
we want to be proactive and tryto protect people's mental health and help their
(04:58):
jobs be more enjoyable and sustainable ratherthan wait until we're in crisis. Gotcha,
that makes a lot of sense.I really do think that, you
know, bets are super important.Without them, we wouldn't be able to
have happy, healthy pets. ButI don't think people know how much bets
actually do because we only see them. You know, you go to the
(05:18):
clinic, they take your pet,maybe you see them for like ten minutes
at the end to talk. Sowhat are some of the responsibilities and jobs
that bet have. Bets have evenyou know, things that us pet owners
don't get to see during our routinetrips to the clinic. Sure, well,
so there are a lot of jobsthat veterans do that aren't even in
(05:40):
a clinical setting. But I'll goahead and just sort of answer for clinicians
because I think that's mostly what we'retalking about today. So one thing that's
different from physicians is that that's aremost of us are general practitioners. And
even though there are some specialists outthere. For the most part, we
can't refer complicated cases to specialists.So we are pediatrician, we are radiologists,
we're surgeons, we're cardiologists. We'regrief counselors, we are behaviorists,
(06:04):
we are endocrinologists, we are anesthesiologists. You know, I could go on
and on. We have to beable to diagnose and treat nearly every problem
that can occur and in multiple speciesfor most of us. And we have
to also bear witness to the fullrange of human emotion every single day because
we're walking our patients all the wayfrom sometimes newborns, all the way through
(06:30):
end of life care. You know, if we stay in one clinical setting
for more than a few years,we are with our patients for their entire
lives, and we are with thefamilies for their entire lives, and so
that's usually ten to fifteen years.And so we are part of the human
animal bond as well as just beingyou know, a medical professional, and
so there's a lot that goes intoit, and a lot of nuanced care
(06:53):
that maybe isn't superficially you know,something that's obvious to pet owners, right,
Yeah, I didn't even think ofhaving to deal with the human patients.
I guess you could say you guysdo a lot of the heavy lifting
when it comes to the emotional stuff. We do, Yeah, we do,
(07:15):
and you know we especially again,you know, in an emergency setting,
maybe you're not bonded to your clients. But for those of us that
are general practitioners, you know,I've known a lot of my clients for
ten to fifteen years, and sowhen I am with them on one of
the worst days of their life,when I am there, you know,
holding their hands sometimes or hugging themwhile they're crying. You know, because
(07:36):
we are all impaths, we absorbsome of their emotion. And when we're
bonded to our patients, which weall are, you know, we're in
this field because we love the animalsso much and we give so much of
ourselves to our patients that when everysingle one of our patients dies, which
is the reality for a catalog veterinarian, that's trauma for us too. We
(07:56):
have our own grief, and yetwe don't have time to process sending those
emotions because as soon as that appointmentis over, we have to run out
of the room. We may havethree or four other people waiting for us.
We may have people who are alreadyangry before we walk in the room,
or even if we're just going fromthat room to a happy puppy visit
or a happy kitten visit, orsomebody that wants to talk about separation anxiety.
We have to turn off our emotionslike a light switch, you know,
(08:18):
and completely switch tracks and go toa completely different type of communication.
And that's the part that people don'tsee, you know, Like I might
go from a dental appointment to acat that's peeing on the owner's bed,
to a happy, healthy puppy,to somebody that I have to give a
cancer diagnosis to. The next roommight be somebody who they just lost a
(08:41):
human family member and now they're aboutto lose an animal family member, and
they completely fall apart in the room, and I have to provide all that
emotional support and be sincerely in atone hundred percent, and yet knowing in
the back of my mind that nowI'm behind schedule, and everybody else I
see the rest of the day isgonna be mad at me, you know.
So it's a lot to juggle andbalance all at the same time,
and so continue to give of ourselveswithout really having anything left for our own
(09:07):
emotions and our own lives. Right, That makes a lot of sense,
especially when you're working in such afast paced environment. You guys probably have
to shove down a lot of emotionsand then they come up when you get
home and you're done for the day, right, right, And so that's
part of the problem is that veterinarians, you know, a lot of times
(09:28):
we're working eight to twelve hours.Maybe we get a lunch break, but
sometimes we work through lunch. We'reeither on the phone with clients, or
we have an emergency surgery, orwe're trying to catch up on our records,
and so we often work straight througha long day, and by the
time we get home, we literallyhave nothing left for our families or even
for veterinarians that know they're struggling,like, gosh, I'm so exhausted,
(09:50):
I feel so alone, maybe I'mdepressed, maybe I'm anxious. Maybe I
need to deal with some of thesefeelings. But how can they possibly do
that because it's eight o'clock at night, nine o'clock at night, they just
finally ate dinner, and how arethey going to find a counselor how are
they going to talk about these problems? All they want to do is go
to bed, and so that's partof what leads to this emotional isolation is
(10:11):
just physically and emotionally not having thetime or energy. And so that's part
of the goal of the Hope Foundationis to bring our services to people in
their homes at after hours and allweekends where they can have accessible care.
Right, that's amazing, and yeah, I mean pet family, When you're
always on the go, it canbe really hard to do the process of
(10:33):
getting a therapist and things like that. They take a very long time.
But we do have to take aquick break, so we'll be right back
with Elizabeth Chosa from the Veterinary HopeFoundation. At Nava Pets, we know
(11:01):
how important your furry companions are,so we want to help keep them happy
and healthy. Our organic hemp productsare especially formulated to enhance the well being
of your beloved pet. But don'tworry. Our hemp supplements don't contain any
of the psychedelic stuff, so youranimal will receive all the health benefits and
still be the pet you know andlove. Your furry friend is sure to
(11:24):
enjoy the organic pet Hemp Tincture,which infuses anti inflammatory plant properties and omega
fatty acids, providing for a moremobile and energetic pet, while also assisting
with any chronic pain or medical conditionsyour pet may be experiencing. Our hemp
products also give a natural calming effect, perfect for the continuous barkers or those
(11:45):
stressed out cats. We also offera range of flavors including bacon, peanut
butter, and salmon. What's notto love At navapets dot com, you
can spoil your pet with goodness,treat your pet like they treat you.
(12:15):
Welcome Backpep family. We are herewith Elizabeth Chosa from the Veterinary Hope Foundation,
and we were talking about how busythe veterinarian life is and how crazy
it is, and how vets don'treally get time for themselves. Fully,
(12:35):
if some of y'all don't know theexperience of trying to get therapy or counseling
or even seeing a mental health professional, it takes a long time, a
lot of calls, a lot ofwaiting, and when you're super busy,
I can imagine that is way harderto deal with. And so I want
(12:58):
to move on to you know,your own experiences, Elizabeth, because you
are a vet. Is it coolif we get into some of that,
Sure, that's fine, amazing.So obviously the mental hope of veterinarians is
close to your heart. You're partof the community, you're a veterinarian.
You see the work that they doevery day inside and outside of the hospitals.
(13:24):
If you don't mind sharing with us, what are some of your personal
experiences with mental wellness issues that comewith the job, you know, Like
I said, I think that allveterinarians struggle sometimes with what I would describe
as emotional whiplash, where we gofrom one type of visit to another and
(13:46):
it lasts all day long, anda lot of times we deal with people
who are grieving and people who arescared, and sometimes people who are angry.
And while it's understandable and it's easyto be objective in a call like
this and say, oh, they'regrieving and so they lash out of the
veterinarian, it's really hard when you'reon the receiving end of that. And
I think particularly for young veterinarians whomaybe don't have a good support system yet,
(14:11):
when we endure character attacks from clientsregarding pet care, sometimes regarding the
cost of pet care. It canbe really isolating and really discouraging. And
so I've seen a lot of youngbets leave the field, a lot of
people who say they have dedicated theirentire lives to this. All they ever
wanted was to be a veterinarian,and then when they get to the reality
of day to day practice, they'renot fulfilled, they're not happy, and
(14:37):
they end up leaving the profession.And like I said, in some cases,
people feel like the only way outis by suicide, which is obviously
the most tragic outcome and something thatI have seen over and over among my
colleagues, and so I have prioritizedmy own mental health. I've had to
make decisions throughout my career. Youknow, I faced burnout gosh back in
(15:00):
twenty ten from a different job thatI had and now unconventional choices just to
change my schedule around and better supportmy staff so that we don't burn out.
But I have thankfully had the supportsystem to do that, and not
every veterinarian does. And so Ifeel like it's really really important that we
(15:24):
start talking about this stuff openly andthat We provide support to people before they're
in crisis and equip them with thetools and the resources and the community they
need so that when the challenges inevitablycome, because they will come in this
profession, that they have the supportsystem they need and they have the tools
they need to address those in ahealthy way. Amazing. Yeah, you
(15:46):
guys are doing great work. Iknow. I mean it's not completely related
by worked at a pet store before, and we love you pet family,
but some of y'all can be alittle crazy at times. I definitely understand
dealing with pet people. We loveour pets a little too much sometimes,
(16:06):
so I completely understand that, andI want to actually get into the support
groups. I'm sure many people haveheard of a support group before. You've
probably heard of AA for people whoare on their journey to being sober,
But I don't think many people actuallyknow what goes on when you join a
support program. So how would youdefine a support group? So in our
(16:33):
case, it's a group of eightveterinarians who meet together once a week for
six weeks, and each of thosemeetings is facilitated by an experienced mental health
professional, either a social worker ora counselor who has undergone specific training not
only for general mental health care,but also for working with people in the
animal medical field. And so there'sa specific curriculum and specific topics that we
(16:56):
go through to provide education as wellas emotional support. And a big part
of that is connecting with people whogenuinely can understand your perspective and your problems
so that you don't feel isolated andyou don't feel alone. Just having someone
else say things out loud that youyourself are are you experiencing or feeling and
(17:17):
having that level of engagement has Statistically, there's data out there showing that that
alone can help protect mental health andhelp preserve people, you know, to
be able to function at their best. Amazing, And just because we are
on the radio, we may havesome people joining us right now, could
(17:37):
you remind us what services Veterinary Hopeprovides via a support group. So right
now, all you know, we'restill a relatively new organization. So right
now, all we're able to provideis the support groups for veterinarians themselves.
And so, like I said,meet once a week for six weeks.
We do in the future hope tobe able to offer more educational programs and
(18:00):
ventially be able to offer support tothe entire medical care team. So not
just veterinarians, but also veterinarian techniciansand receptionists, you know, because they
are certainly subject to a lot ofthe same things that we are. Right
now, it's limited just to veterinarians. Still, gotcha. So let's say
I am a veterinarian. I registeredwith a program. Like you said,
it's six weeks of sixty to seventyfive minute video meetings with other vets.
(18:27):
What can I expect during my timein the meetings? Yeah, So,
each each week that we meet,we have a specific set topic and so
we go through the things that aremost likely to affect veterinarians. And we
have based these things not only onthe experience of our mental health professionals,
(18:48):
but also on surveys and research that'sbeen done with veterinarians to say, what,
you know, what kind of thingsdo you need to talk about?
What the sort of support do youneed? So we'll talk about a different
topic each of those weeks, andthen you know, beyond that, the
goal is to build community so thatyou have these people who understand your life
and hopefully can continue to be asupport system even following the six weeks and
(19:10):
so far with our pilot groups,you know, the members of those groups
have stayed in touch and it's beena lasting way to build community. And
so that's the other goal of this, not just to discuss the topics for
the six weeks, but also tohave other people that you can reach out
to as challenges are faced in realtime. Good that's amazing, guys.
Community is super super important. Whenyou feel alone, the best thing for
(19:33):
you is to find someone you canrelate to. So these support exactly with
that. And you know we weretalking about that. You go over a
few topics. What are they?So things like setting healthy boundaries. You
know, veterinarians tend to be,like I said, impaths and givers,
and so we have a hard timesaying no, we have a hard time
(19:55):
not absorbing everyone's emotions. If wehave a hard time reconciling the fact that
can't save every single pet even thoughwe know how to or we want to
that there are limitations to that.So setting healthy boundaries is a big one.
Self care or self compassion is abig one. Figuring out how to
balance your life with your workload,how to be resilient, how to heal
(20:15):
from emotional challenges, conflict resolution.These are the things that come up over
and over again in our profession,and for the most part, particularly those
of us who have been out ofschool for more than a couple of years,
we had zero training and any ofthese sort of soft skills, and
so this is a chance to reallydevelop some of those things that can help
(20:36):
us be stronger mentally and stay healthier. Awesome. We do have to take
a quick break, but I wantyou guys to remember the website. It
is Veterinary Hope dot org and we'llbe right back with Elizabeth Chosa from the
Veterinary Hope Foundation. We all knowthat a dog is man's best friend,
(21:07):
won't why stop there? We thinkthat all pets make our lives a little
easier, whether it's a cat,gecko, or even a horse. We
want to learn what makes your petsso special to you. Maybe they have
an eccentric personality or even give goodcuddles. Whatever it is, we want
to hear about it. After all, our pets deserve a moment in the
spotlight. Why not share an interestingstory about your pet with our host pet
(21:32):
coach Janelle Young. No matter howbig or small, we'd love to hear
from you on the Pet Owner DiaryShow. We're looking for the next pet
celebrity superstar or that unique animal storyfor TV and radio. If you believe
your pet has the IT factor,then call our pet line at four oh
seven nine oh six fifty seven twelveor email us at pet Owner Diary at
(21:52):
gmail dot com. The possibilities areendless. Maybe you and your pet will
be our next featured weekly guest onTV or radio. Let's give our pets
the attention they deserve. Welcome backthat family. We are here with Elizabeth
(22:23):
Chosa from the Veterinary Hope Foundation.You can find them at Veterinary Hope dot
org. And we were talking aboutsome of the topics that we go over
in the support groups. And Elizabeth, why would you say these topics are
some of the most important for veterinariansto talk through and learn about. So
(22:48):
we've chosen those topics because they arethe ones that affect veterinarians in every field
and every specialty. You know,I think people in general, right,
so veterinarians are human too, sowe all need healthy boundaries and we all
need self compassion and we all needresilience. But because they are tailored to
the specific needs of veterinarians, thoseare the things that we all need just
(23:11):
to be able to get through everyday as we meet these challenges face on,
so that we don't feel isolated,so that we don't feel alone,
and we don't just reach for somethingelse to sort of help repress feelings instead
of dealing with them in a healthyway. And so we want to give
people the tools to work through challenges, work through conflict, work through emotions,
(23:33):
and figure out how to have appropriateboundaries. Right, that makes a
lot of sense. These are allthings that everyone can use in their daily
life, whether you're a veterinarian ornot. And so when you go through
the process, you register, youmeet with multiple other veterinarians over a program
like zoom. It's six weeks ofsixty to seventy five minute video meetings and
(24:00):
you put them into groups of eightpeople. Is there a strategy for putting
together the groups, Yeah, thereis. So we focused on what we
call affinity groups, and so thegoal is to build teams of people based
on the type of medicine they practice, their role in their hospital where they
are in their career path. Youknow, as veterinarians, we all share
(24:22):
some experiences, often some personality traits. But new graduates working in small and
all practice are going to have obviouslydifferent challenges than maybe retiring bovine practitioners,
and so we do our best tomatch up with people who are going to
have the most similar experiences, sothat when they are opening their hearts and
becoming vulnerable, there with people whocan understand their experience and better relate to
(24:45):
them, not only during the sessions, but also moving forward to build that
community. Amazing. Yeah, Soif you are a vet listening and you're
interested, but you're a little worriedbecause you're a little shy, They're not
just going to throw you into randompeople. You know. They take into
account what you like, what youdo, stuff like that, so you
(25:06):
don't have to feel so nervous aboutit. And so these sessions are not
just thrown together. VHF uses licensedmental health professionals. Is there anything special
about the practitioners that you use.Yeah, so each of the facilitators,
(25:26):
like I mentioned, as a licensedmental health professional, so either a therapist,
a counselor, or a social worker, all of whom have had specific
training working with animal care professionals,so there are several different programs that they
may have been involved in historically.And the mental health professionals on our board,
who again have worked closely with veterinarians, have made sure that each of
(25:48):
these facilitators has complete training to bestaddress mental health for veterinarians. Amazing.
Yeah, and that's so important isbeing able to have a therapist or mental
health progressional that understands your needs andwhat you're going through. So that is
a big advantage to these support groups. And how successful have they been so
(26:11):
far? Are you seeing an improvementwith the veterinarians that take the program?
Yeah? Absolutely. You know,this was a little bit of a leap
of faith. We thought that itwas going to make a difference, but
we weren't really sure. So weran some pilot groups and the response was
really really encouraging. Two of thethree groups we ran right away there there
were tears the very first day,you know, not tears of sadness,
(26:33):
but we had veterinarians telling us,Oh my gosh, I feel seen and
understood for the first time in mylife. You know, I feel like
this counselor understands me better than Iunderstand myself. You know, I feel
like I can relate to these otherveterinarians in a way I've never had these
connections before. And you know,they have chosen, like I mentioned before,
(26:55):
they've actually chosen to stay in touchand maintain these groups beyond the six
weeks where we created the facilitator sessionsfor them, and so I you know,
I think the early signs indicate thatwe are meeting a need that's there,
and then it really is making adifference for people. One of our
participants wrote, and you know,in the little assessment afterward, this is
(27:15):
something that I wish every single veterinarianhad access to, and it is life
changing for me. And so gosh, if we could do that even for
one person, that's already rewarding.But if we can do it on a
larger scale and make a difference,you know, for even a small percentage
of internarians and we can help protecttheir mental health, then you know,
we have done our job right.And that makes a lot of sense.
(27:37):
It's it's so important. You know, I don't know too much about either
the human medical field or the animalmedical field, but I can almost positively
say that there is probably something,maybe many things like this for human doctors,
if you want to call them that. So having this for veterinary care,
(28:03):
I think it makes a lot ofsense. Even if people don't think
about it, when you really thinkabout it, it makes a lot of
sense to have. So, Yeah, there are a lot of groups out
there for veterinarians who are in crisisnow, and those are wonderful and they're
doing very important work. Our goalis to try to reach people before they're
in crisis to try to protect mentalhealth, you know, rather than wait
(28:27):
until they need postvention. You know. We're trying to sort of do what
we can to intervene and give toolsso that they don't reach a crisis point.
And there may be other groups doingthe same thing, we're not aware
of it. And we feel likethe more people that are trying to protect
mental health, the more people fightingfor the mental health for veterinarians, the
(28:47):
better. So we are happy tobe in the company of people who are
doing everything they can and approaching thisproblem from all different directions, of course,
And so where can people go toregister for the support group or learn
more about the veterinary Hope Foundation.So Veterinary Hope dot Org is our website
and you just go to the mainmenu and click register, or if you're
(29:11):
not a veterinarian and you want tohelp, you can click donate. So
we've tried to make it again asuser friendly as possible. You just fill
out an online form and we willget back in touch and talk to you
about affinity groups and what works foryour schedule and kind of go from there.
Amazing. Yeah, and since theVHF is a nonprofit, you guys
(29:32):
collect donations and need these donations tocontinue with your work. Obviously, you
guys probably have to pay the medicalprofessionals and pay for the Zoom subscription and
all that fun stuff. So youcan go to the Veterinary Hope Foundation website
Veterinary Hope dot org and when youclick on the little home icon, it
(29:56):
will take you to a page thatsays donate and you can go there to
donate and help out. Yeah,it would be great, yes, And
so do you have any plans toexpand your reach or you know what you
are doing in the future. Youknow, our big goal right now is
(30:19):
to be able to extend care tothe entire animal medical team, maybe as
early as next year, depending onagain funding and how quickly we can move
forward and scale our program. Butthere is other support for veterinarians. There's
not much support out there for veterinarynurses and for front desk team members,
(30:41):
all of whom are subjected to alot of the same emotional pressure, maybe
not to the same level as veterinarians, but they have different challenges than we
do, and we want to helpthem as well. So as soon as
we get our program for veterinarians wellunder way, our next big goal is
to help the entire animal care team. Amazing, Yeah, and that makes
a lot of sense. I mean, I'm sure many people can understand.
(31:02):
Even if you're just sitting next tosomeone who is going through the motions of
losing a pet or a loved onein general, you kind of feed off
of that energy. And I imaginewhen you're doing that all day in the
same environment every day for weeks onend, even if you're not dealing with
(31:25):
the people face to face, itcan be really stressful. Still, absolutely,
yeah, and we couldn't do ourjobs without them, so we want
to make sure we're supporting them aswell. Yes, exactly, that's amazing.
And is there any way that peoplewho are not medical professionals or even
(31:47):
in the community at all, howcan we support our beloved bets. You
know, I think the most helpfulthing is just remembering that we are all
on the same team. We reallydo everything we can for the health and
well being of our patients. Andso if you can go into every VET
appointment seeing us as partners or alliesinstead of adversaries, it makes a big
(32:10):
difference. You know, realize thatwe're on the same team. A lot
of people go to the VET thinking, oh, my god, I have
to go to the VET today,or oh it's going to be five hundred
dollars, or oh I'm going tohave to wait an hour, you know,
and so before we even walk inthe room, it's like playing defense,
right, And so if we canjust meet where we are and understand
that we are human beings doing thevery best we can for every single patient,
(32:31):
and if we work together as ateam instead of against each other,
your animal is going to do better, and your family is going to do
better, and the veterinarian is goingto do better. We're all in this
together, exactly, And you know, I guess you could probably consider veterinarian
service workers. They are humans,so be kind. And again, if
(32:52):
you want to find the Veterinary HopeFoundation, it is Veterinary hoped or or
Veterinary Hope on Instagram, Facebook,and we'll be right back at Nava Pets.
We know how important your furry companionsare, so we want to help
(33:15):
keep them happy and healthy. Ourorganic hemp products are especially formulated to enhance
the well being of your beloved pet. But don't worry. Our hemp supplements
don't contain any of the psychedelic stuff, so your animal will receive all the
health benefits and still be the petyou know and love. Your furry friend
is sure to enjoy the organic PetHemp Tincture, which infuses anti inflammatory plant
(33:38):
properties and omega fatty acids, providingfor a more mobile and energetic pet,
while also assisting with any chronic painor medical conditions your pet may be experiencing.
Our hemp products also give a naturalcalming effect, perfect for the continuous
barkers or those stressed out cats.We also offer a range of flavors,
(33:58):
including bacon, peanut butter, andsalmon. What's not to love at navopets
dot com. You can spoil yourpet with goodness. Treat your pet like
they treat you. Welcome back,pet family. We are here with Elizabeth
(34:27):
Chosa from the Veterinary Hope Foundation andwe were talking about some of the things
that the support groups do and waysthat we can help our vets have a
safer and easier time when working withour pets, but also us humans.
So for me and a lot oflisteners, I can bet this is probably
(34:51):
the first time that we've really puta lot of fine into our veterinarians and
how they may be feeling during theircareers. And of course is not because
we don't care. You typically don'tget to sit down and ask your bet
if they're okay, and it maynot always feel appropriate to do so.
So Elizabeth, is there any waywe can bring awareness to the importance of
(35:15):
mental health support for our bets outsideof the clinics, And how do we
let them know that we do care? You know, I think it can
be really simple. I think justsaying thank you for what you do,
you know, to your vet thenext time that you're in. What's interesting
is I have wonderful clients that I'veknown for a long time, so this
(35:37):
doesn't always apply to me. Buteven with that, I still mostly only
receive thank yous for end of lifecare. Most often somebody says thank you
after I've ended the pets life,you know, or maybe I have these
hero moments right where an animals hitby a car or something where I save
its life. But the day today, in and out appointments, like
I mentioned before, sometimes feel moreadversarial than they necessarily need to be,
(36:00):
So just saying thank you would begreat. Or maybe next time you're at
the vet if you have to wait, and I know you're frustrated. I
hate waiting for appointments too, butbefore you complain, just take a deep
breath and realize that we may becaring for an impatient in the back that
you can't see that has just crashed, or we might be on the phone
with a client who is having tomake a life ending decision for their pet,
(36:22):
or we might be counseling somebody throughsomething that is one of the hardest
days of their life. And soif you're waiting, it's not because we
don't care. It's because we're Wehave to sometimes treaze, just like a
human hospital does. And so ifyou can just kind of meet us where
we are, that can make abig difference. You're not going to see
(36:43):
what's going on behind the scenes,and we're not always going to tell you
what's going on behind the scenes becauseit's not appropriate. But I think that
can make a big difference. Ithink also one of the things that's hard
right now is online reviews for veterinariansand a lot of times online accusations.
You know. Again, emotions runreally high when we're talking about life and
(37:04):
death of our pets, and it'sand we understand that, and particularly because
money is involved, you know,healthcare for pets. Most people don't have
insurance, and so even though weare providing care at a fraction of human
medicine for a lot of the sameservices, there's no insurance to offset those
costs, and so people get reallymad at us. And it's a it's
(37:27):
a tender topic. So I wantto be careful how I talk about it.
But every time somebody says you're init for the money, that's like
an arrow through our heart because wehave given our whole lives for the wellness
of animals, and so we tryreally hard to limit costs when we can.
Everything is more expensive in the worldnow, just like gas prices,
everything is, you know, exponentiallyincreasing for animal care costs, and so
(37:52):
if we can work together within yourbudget, that is always our preference.
It's heartbreaking for us when we knowhow to fix a problem and we know
how to help an animal and wecan't because of financial constraints, and so
that's one of the things that's hardin our career over and over again.
And if we can meet people andhave open, caring conversations about that instead
(38:12):
of adversarial conversations, that can makea big difference too. And if you
do see accusations lobbied online against veterinarians, if you can just take a deep
breath and not jump into the fray, that would be great, because sometimes
those situations get pitchforks out of controlfor people who have never met the veterinarian
or never met the animal involved.And we can't always defend ourselves online and
(38:36):
so that's one of the places thatcan be really challenging as well, of
course. Yeah, so basically,just be kind, just be nice,
Yeah, just be nice and realizewe're humans and we really are doing the
best we can and veterinarians for themost part, are really really caring people
And the only reason we're doing thisis because we love animals and we really
are doing the best we can.And if you can just go into it
(38:58):
with that assumption, assume the bestof our intentions, consider the worst,
that can make a big difference forthe whole family. Amazing. So lastly,
I know we have some listeners whowork in the animal medical community.
Well would you say to someone whoworks with animals and is currently struggling mentally?
I think the most important thing isto know that you're not alone.
(39:21):
You're never alone, and that thethings that you are feeling and struggling with
are normal and there's nothing wrong withyou, and that asking for help is
not a sign of weakness. That'sthe most important thing, the stigma that
we have to get over. Youknow, there's a lot of help available
from a variety of resources. VEdon't A Hope Foundation is just one of
them, and there are different resourcesfor different people. But the feelings of
(39:45):
isolation can be very powerful, andI just want people to know that they're
not alone and that there are lotsof us that are here dedicating our time
and energy to making sure that youare okay and that you have the help
you need to continue to do wellin our field. Yes, family,
if you are loved when are strugglingwith suicidal ideation, the National Suicide Prevention
(40:07):
Lifeline number is one eight hundred twoseven three eight two five five, and
for our podcast listeners that number willbe in the description. So, Elizabeth,
thank you so much. Could youtell everyone where to find the Veterinary
Hope Foundation? Sure? So,you just go to Veterinary Hope dot org
(40:29):
and you can click through our littlestory there and go to the menu.
If you're a veterinarian, you canregister for help. If you're not a
veterinarian and you want to make adifference, you can donate. Even a
dollar would be great so that wecan continue to help veterinarians as much as
possible for as long as possible.Amazing. Thank you so much for everything
that you guys do. I thinkthis is extremely important and I hope our
(40:51):
listeners can take away that veterinarians arehumans too, and you know they know
that you are struggle as well whenyour pet is in crisis, So just
be kind if that's the one thingyou guys take away from this that would
be amazing. Absolutely, thank thankthank you so much, Thank you so
(41:14):
much to you Elizabeth Chosa for comingon to our show again. Guys.
If you are in need of somehelp, you guys can go and check
out the Veterinary Hope Foundation at VeterinaryHope dot org and as well check out
the National Suicide Prevention number in thedescription below. Thank you so much.
(41:37):
I've been your co host, TayShuemaker, and thank you again to Elizabeth,
and we will see you next time, same place, same time next
week. Thank you, guys,and goodbye, thank you, thank you.
We'll see you next week. Thankyou for joining us on Pet Owner
(42:00):
Diary. Make sure to visit ourwebsite pet Ownerdiary dot com, where you
can sign up for our newsletter,view show highlights, and download each episode
via SoundCloud. Make sure to subscribeto the show on your favorite podcast app
too, so you and your petnever miss an episode. Pet Family.
If you like what you hear,please share on your social media and tell
(42:22):
a friend to tune in on behalfof America's Pet Owner Coach Janelle Young.
We wish you love, peace andharmony with your pet. We'll catch you
in the next episode,
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary Podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny,
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type
of pet. Now here's your host, America's Pet Owner Coach, Janelle Young.
(00:21):
Welcome back to the Pet Owner DiaryShow. My name is Tashuemaker and
I will be your co host today. Thank you so much for joining us.
We have a very powerful episode aheadand just to be safe, I
want to add a small content warningas we will be discussing hard topics like
mental health and suicide. So tostart us off, I want to ask
(00:42):
you all a questions, just somethingto keep in your mind while we talk
to our guest today. How welldo you think you know your veterinarian.
When we take our pets to theclinic, we only get to see one
side of our friendly vetex and petprofessionals. Being an animal doctor is just
(01:03):
as hard as being a human one, and no one knows the animal medical
field better than today's guest. She'sone of the founders of the Veterinary Hope
Foundation, a season veterinarian and petmom the wonderful Elizabeth Josaph is here with
us today. Welcome Elizabeth, howare you hi? Thank you? I
am so happy to be here.I really appreciate you caring about veterinarians and
(01:26):
about the Veteranals Foundation. Of course, thank you for being here, so
pet family. For those of youwho may have never heard of the Veterinary
Hope Foundation, or VHF as wemay call it today, this is an
organization for veterinarians to get mental healthsupport as the field can be quite difficult.
So Elizabeth, could you elaborate onwhat the Veterinary Hope Foundation's mission is?
(01:52):
Sure? Our goal is just tobring hope and help to veterinarians,
to normalize the struggles they may besing and give them the resources and the
community support they need, just tohelp the career path be more sustainable,
more enjoyable, and hopefully help themcontinue long, fulfilling careers as veterinarians.
Amazing and I've personally never heard ofa nonprofit quite like VHF. Your cause
(02:19):
is super unique. What made y'allwant to start a mental health foundation for
veterinarians specifically, Well, you know, our profession is a really challenging one,
and we are full of perfectionists andwe are almost uniformly highly sensitive people
by nature. So even though justbeing a veterinarian, you know, it's
(02:42):
impossible to do that without some challenges. Most veterinarians tend to suffer in silence
and isolation, and if they doneed help, that is often seen as
a sign of weakness rather than strength. And so we feel like it's really
important just to talk about it,to normalize the struggles and to make sure
that people have the mental health supportthey need so that they continue to thrive.
(03:05):
Right, that's amazing, And somepeople may wonder if this is something
that bets really need or why exactlyit's needed. You know, doctors who
work with humans go through so muchas well, and it's easy to justify
them needing mental health wellness help becausewe can identify with them, but we
also see their struggles openly through medialike medical shows. Bets often don't have
(03:29):
such an open experience representation. Andyou and I know that being a veterinarian
is hard, just as hard asbeing a human doctor. But what would
you say to those questioning the importanceof vhf's mission. Yeah, so you
know, I understand why people questionthe need of a lot of kids think
they want to be veterinarians, andit seems like it's a really fun,
(03:52):
easy job that you just play withpuppies and kittens all day long. Of
course, the reality is totally differentbehind the scenes and is much more difficult
than you could possibly imagine if you'renot in the profession, and it's gotten
even harder with the pandemic. Thereason we need this is because we really
are a profession of people in crisisto some degree. I have personally lost
(04:14):
three wonderful classmates to suicide. Mostof the vets I know have been touched
in one way or another by amental health crisis, either with a colleague
or sometimes with themselves. And evenif suicide and mental health crisis isn't part
of it, just the day today challenges of being a veterinarian and a
rapidly changing field can get so overwhelmingsometimes that people are choosing to leave the
(04:36):
profession. So we have a realloss of clinicians over the last five to
ten years, so much so thatsometimes people don't have access to veterinary care
or they have to wait hours andhours for care simply because there aren't enough
veterinarians available to treat animals right now, and it's a real crisis, and
we want to be proactive and tryto protect people's mental health and help their
(04:58):
jobs be more enjoyable and sustainable ratherthan wait until we're in crisis. Gotcha,
that makes a lot of sense.I really do think that, you
know, bets are super important.Without them, we wouldn't be able to
have happy, healthy pets. ButI don't think people know how much bets
actually do because we only see them. You know, you go to the
(05:18):
clinic, they take your pet,maybe you see them for like ten minutes
at the end to talk. Sowhat are some of the responsibilities and jobs
that bet have. Bets have evenyou know, things that us pet owners
don't get to see during our routinetrips to the clinic. Sure, well,
so there are a lot of jobsthat veterans do that aren't even in
(05:40):
a clinical setting. But I'll goahead and just sort of answer for clinicians
because I think that's mostly what we'retalking about today. So one thing that's
different from physicians is that that's aremost of us are general practitioners. And
even though there are some specialists outthere. For the most part, we
can't refer complicated cases to specialists.So we are pediatrician, we are radiologists,
we're surgeons, we're cardiologists. We'regrief counselors, we are behaviorists,
(06:04):
we are endocrinologists, we are anesthesiologists. You know, I could go on
and on. We have to beable to diagnose and treat nearly every problem
that can occur and in multiple speciesfor most of us. And we have
to also bear witness to the fullrange of human emotion every single day because
we're walking our patients all the wayfrom sometimes newborns, all the way through
(06:30):
end of life care. You know, if we stay in one clinical setting
for more than a few years,we are with our patients for their entire
lives, and we are with thefamilies for their entire lives, and so
that's usually ten to fifteen years.And so we are part of the human
animal bond as well as just beingyou know, a medical professional, and
so there's a lot that goes intoit, and a lot of nuanced care
(06:53):
that maybe isn't superficially you know,something that's obvious to pet owners, right,
Yeah, I didn't even think ofhaving to deal with the human patients.
I guess you could say you guysdo a lot of the heavy lifting
when it comes to the emotional stuff. We do, Yeah, we do,
(07:15):
and you know we especially again,you know, in an emergency setting,
maybe you're not bonded to your clients. But for those of us that
are general practitioners, you know,I've known a lot of my clients for
ten to fifteen years, and sowhen I am with them on one of
the worst days of their life,when I am there, you know,
holding their hands sometimes or hugging themwhile they're crying. You know, because
(07:36):
we are all impaths, we absorbsome of their emotion. And when we're
bonded to our patients, which weall are, you know, we're in
this field because we love the animalsso much and we give so much of
ourselves to our patients that when everysingle one of our patients dies, which
is the reality for a catalog veterinarian, that's trauma for us too. We
(07:56):
have our own grief, and yetwe don't have time to process sending those
emotions because as soon as that appointmentis over, we have to run out
of the room. We may havethree or four other people waiting for us.
We may have people who are alreadyangry before we walk in the room,
or even if we're just going fromthat room to a happy puppy visit
or a happy kitten visit, orsomebody that wants to talk about separation anxiety.
We have to turn off our emotionslike a light switch, you know,
(08:18):
and completely switch tracks and go toa completely different type of communication.
And that's the part that people don'tsee, you know, Like I might
go from a dental appointment to acat that's peeing on the owner's bed,
to a happy, healthy puppy,to somebody that I have to give a
cancer diagnosis to. The next roommight be somebody who they just lost a
(08:41):
human family member and now they're aboutto lose an animal family member, and
they completely fall apart in the room, and I have to provide all that
emotional support and be sincerely in atone hundred percent, and yet knowing in
the back of my mind that nowI'm behind schedule, and everybody else I
see the rest of the day isgonna be mad at me, you know.
So it's a lot to juggle andbalance all at the same time,
and so continue to give of ourselveswithout really having anything left for our own
(09:07):
emotions and our own lives. Right, That makes a lot of sense,
especially when you're working in such afast paced environment. You guys probably have
to shove down a lot of emotionsand then they come up when you get
home and you're done for the day, right, right, And so that's
part of the problem is that veterinarians, you know, a lot of times
(09:28):
we're working eight to twelve hours.Maybe we get a lunch break, but
sometimes we work through lunch. We'reeither on the phone with clients, or
we have an emergency surgery, orwe're trying to catch up on our records,
and so we often work straight througha long day, and by the
time we get home, we literallyhave nothing left for our families or even
for veterinarians that know they're struggling,like, gosh, I'm so exhausted,
(09:50):
I feel so alone, maybe I'mdepressed, maybe I'm anxious. Maybe I
need to deal with some of thesefeelings. But how can they possibly do
that because it's eight o'clock at night, nine o'clock at night, they just
finally ate dinner, and how arethey going to find a counselor how are
they going to talk about these problems? All they want to do is go
to bed, and so that's partof what leads to this emotional isolation is
(10:11):
just physically and emotionally not having thetime or energy. And so that's part
of the goal of the Hope Foundationis to bring our services to people in
their homes at after hours and allweekends where they can have accessible care.
Right, that's amazing, and yeah, I mean pet family, When you're
always on the go, it canbe really hard to do the process of
(10:33):
getting a therapist and things like that. They take a very long time.
But we do have to take aquick break, so we'll be right back
with Elizabeth Chosa from the Veterinary HopeFoundation. At Nava Pets, we know
(11:01):
how important your furry companions are,so we want to help keep them happy
and healthy. Our organic hemp productsare especially formulated to enhance the well being
of your beloved pet. But don'tworry. Our hemp supplements don't contain any
of the psychedelic stuff, so youranimal will receive all the health benefits and
still be the pet you know andlove. Your furry friend is sure to
(11:24):
enjoy the organic pet Hemp Tincture,which infuses anti inflammatory plant properties and omega
fatty acids, providing for a moremobile and energetic pet, while also assisting
with any chronic pain or medical conditionsyour pet may be experiencing. Our hemp
products also give a natural calming effect, perfect for the continuous barkers or those
(11:45):
stressed out cats. We also offera range of flavors including bacon, peanut
butter, and salmon. What's notto love At navapets dot com, you
can spoil your pet with goodness,treat your pet like they treat you.
(12:15):
Welcome Backpep family. We are herewith Elizabeth Chosa from the Veterinary Hope Foundation,
and we were talking about how busythe veterinarian life is and how crazy
it is, and how vets don'treally get time for themselves. Fully,
(12:35):
if some of y'all don't know theexperience of trying to get therapy or counseling
or even seeing a mental health professional, it takes a long time, a
lot of calls, a lot ofwaiting, and when you're super busy,
I can imagine that is way harderto deal with. And so I want
(12:58):
to move on to you know,your own experiences, Elizabeth, because you
are a vet. Is it coolif we get into some of that,
Sure, that's fine, amazing.So obviously the mental hope of veterinarians is
close to your heart. You're partof the community, you're a veterinarian.
You see the work that they doevery day inside and outside of the hospitals.
(13:24):
If you don't mind sharing with us, what are some of your personal
experiences with mental wellness issues that comewith the job, you know, Like
I said, I think that allveterinarians struggle sometimes with what I would describe
as emotional whiplash, where we gofrom one type of visit to another and
(13:46):
it lasts all day long, anda lot of times we deal with people
who are grieving and people who arescared, and sometimes people who are angry.
And while it's understandable and it's easyto be objective in a call like
this and say, oh, they'regrieving and so they lash out of the
veterinarian, it's really hard when you'reon the receiving end of that. And
I think particularly for young veterinarians whomaybe don't have a good support system yet,
(14:11):
when we endure character attacks from clientsregarding pet care, sometimes regarding the
cost of pet care. It canbe really isolating and really discouraging. And
so I've seen a lot of youngbets leave the field, a lot of
people who say they have dedicated theirentire lives to this. All they ever
wanted was to be a veterinarian,and then when they get to the reality
of day to day practice, they'renot fulfilled, they're not happy, and
(14:37):
they end up leaving the profession.And like I said, in some cases,
people feel like the only way outis by suicide, which is obviously
the most tragic outcome and something thatI have seen over and over among my
colleagues, and so I have prioritizedmy own mental health. I've had to
make decisions throughout my career. Youknow, I faced burnout gosh back in
(15:00):
twenty ten from a different job thatI had and now unconventional choices just to
change my schedule around and better supportmy staff so that we don't burn out.
But I have thankfully had the supportsystem to do that, and not
every veterinarian does. And so Ifeel like it's really really important that we
(15:24):
start talking about this stuff openly andthat We provide support to people before they're
in crisis and equip them with thetools and the resources and the community they
need so that when the challenges inevitablycome, because they will come in this
profession, that they have the supportsystem they need and they have the tools
they need to address those in ahealthy way. Amazing. Yeah, you
(15:46):
guys are doing great work. Iknow. I mean it's not completely related
by worked at a pet store before, and we love you pet family,
but some of y'all can be alittle crazy at times. I definitely understand
dealing with pet people. We loveour pets a little too much sometimes,
(16:06):
so I completely understand that, andI want to actually get into the support
groups. I'm sure many people haveheard of a support group before. You've
probably heard of AA for people whoare on their journey to being sober,
But I don't think many people actuallyknow what goes on when you join a
support program. So how would youdefine a support group? So in our
(16:33):
case, it's a group of eightveterinarians who meet together once a week for
six weeks, and each of thosemeetings is facilitated by an experienced mental health
professional, either a social worker ora counselor who has undergone specific training not
only for general mental health care,but also for working with people in the
animal medical field. And so there'sa specific curriculum and specific topics that we
(16:56):
go through to provide education as wellas emotional support. And a big part
of that is connecting with people whogenuinely can understand your perspective and your problems
so that you don't feel isolated andyou don't feel alone. Just having someone
else say things out loud that youyourself are are you experiencing or feeling and
(17:17):
having that level of engagement has Statistically, there's data out there showing that that
alone can help protect mental health andhelp preserve people, you know, to
be able to function at their best. Amazing, And just because we are
on the radio, we may havesome people joining us right now, could
(17:37):
you remind us what services Veterinary Hopeprovides via a support group. So right
now, all you know, we'restill a relatively new organization. So right
now, all we're able to provideis the support groups for veterinarians themselves.
And so, like I said,meet once a week for six weeks.
We do in the future hope tobe able to offer more educational programs and
(18:00):
ventially be able to offer support tothe entire medical care team. So not
just veterinarians, but also veterinarian techniciansand receptionists, you know, because they
are certainly subject to a lot ofthe same things that we are. Right
now, it's limited just to veterinarians. Still, gotcha. So let's say
I am a veterinarian. I registeredwith a program. Like you said,
it's six weeks of sixty to seventyfive minute video meetings with other vets.
(18:27):
What can I expect during my timein the meetings? Yeah, So,
each each week that we meet,we have a specific set topic and so
we go through the things that aremost likely to affect veterinarians. And we
have based these things not only onthe experience of our mental health professionals,
(18:48):
but also on surveys and research that'sbeen done with veterinarians to say, what,
you know, what kind of thingsdo you need to talk about?
What the sort of support do youneed? So we'll talk about a different
topic each of those weeks, andthen you know, beyond that, the
goal is to build community so thatyou have these people who understand your life
and hopefully can continue to be asupport system even following the six weeks and
(19:10):
so far with our pilot groups,you know, the members of those groups
have stayed in touch and it's beena lasting way to build community. And
so that's the other goal of this, not just to discuss the topics for
the six weeks, but also tohave other people that you can reach out
to as challenges are faced in realtime. Good that's amazing, guys.
Community is super super important. Whenyou feel alone, the best thing for
(19:33):
you is to find someone you canrelate to. So these support exactly with
that. And you know we weretalking about that. You go over a
few topics. What are they?So things like setting healthy boundaries. You
know, veterinarians tend to be,like I said, impaths and givers,
and so we have a hard timesaying no, we have a hard time
(19:55):
not absorbing everyone's emotions. If wehave a hard time reconciling the fact that
can't save every single pet even thoughwe know how to or we want to
that there are limitations to that.So setting healthy boundaries is a big one.
Self care or self compassion is abig one. Figuring out how to
balance your life with your workload,how to be resilient, how to heal
(20:15):
from emotional challenges, conflict resolution.These are the things that come up over
and over again in our profession,and for the most part, particularly those
of us who have been out ofschool for more than a couple of years,
we had zero training and any ofthese sort of soft skills, and
so this is a chance to reallydevelop some of those things that can help
(20:36):
us be stronger mentally and stay healthier. Awesome. We do have to take
a quick break, but I wantyou guys to remember the website. It
is Veterinary Hope dot org and we'llbe right back with Elizabeth Chosa from the
Veterinary Hope Foundation. We all knowthat a dog is man's best friend,
(21:07):
won't why stop there? We thinkthat all pets make our lives a little
easier, whether it's a cat,gecko, or even a horse. We
want to learn what makes your petsso special to you. Maybe they have
an eccentric personality or even give goodcuddles. Whatever it is, we want
to hear about it. After all, our pets deserve a moment in the
spotlight. Why not share an interestingstory about your pet with our host pet
(21:32):
coach Janelle Young. No matter howbig or small, we'd love to hear
from you on the Pet Owner DiaryShow. We're looking for the next pet
celebrity superstar or that unique animal storyfor TV and radio. If you believe
your pet has the IT factor,then call our pet line at four oh
seven nine oh six fifty seven twelveor email us at pet Owner Diary at
(21:52):
gmail dot com. The possibilities areendless. Maybe you and your pet will
be our next featured weekly guest onTV or radio. Let's give our pets
the attention they deserve. Welcome backthat family. We are here with Elizabeth
(22:23):
Chosa from the Veterinary Hope Foundation.You can find them at Veterinary Hope dot
org. And we were talking aboutsome of the topics that we go over
in the support groups. And Elizabeth, why would you say these topics are
some of the most important for veterinariansto talk through and learn about. So
(22:48):
we've chosen those topics because they arethe ones that affect veterinarians in every field
and every specialty. You know,I think people in general, right,
so veterinarians are human too, sowe all need healthy boundaries and we all
need self compassion and we all needresilience. But because they are tailored to
the specific needs of veterinarians, thoseare the things that we all need just
(23:11):
to be able to get through everyday as we meet these challenges face on,
so that we don't feel isolated,so that we don't feel alone,
and we don't just reach for somethingelse to sort of help repress feelings instead
of dealing with them in a healthyway. And so we want to give
people the tools to work through challenges, work through conflict, work through emotions,
(23:33):
and figure out how to have appropriateboundaries. Right, that makes a
lot of sense. These are allthings that everyone can use in their daily
life, whether you're a veterinarian ornot. And so when you go through
the process, you register, youmeet with multiple other veterinarians over a program
like zoom. It's six weeks ofsixty to seventy five minute video meetings and
(24:00):
you put them into groups of eightpeople. Is there a strategy for putting
together the groups, Yeah, thereis. So we focused on what we
call affinity groups, and so thegoal is to build teams of people based
on the type of medicine they practice, their role in their hospital where they
are in their career path. Youknow, as veterinarians, we all share
(24:22):
some experiences, often some personality traits. But new graduates working in small and
all practice are going to have obviouslydifferent challenges than maybe retiring bovine practitioners,
and so we do our best tomatch up with people who are going to
have the most similar experiences, sothat when they are opening their hearts and
becoming vulnerable, there with people whocan understand their experience and better relate to
(24:45):
them, not only during the sessions, but also moving forward to build that
community. Amazing. Yeah, Soif you are a vet listening and you're
interested, but you're a little worriedbecause you're a little shy, They're not
just going to throw you into randompeople. You know. They take into
account what you like, what youdo, stuff like that, so you
(25:06):
don't have to feel so nervous aboutit. And so these sessions are not
just thrown together. VHF uses licensedmental health professionals. Is there anything special
about the practitioners that you use.Yeah, so each of the facilitators,
(25:26):
like I mentioned, as a licensedmental health professional, so either a therapist,
a counselor, or a social worker, all of whom have had specific
training working with animal care professionals,so there are several different programs that they
may have been involved in historically.And the mental health professionals on our board,
who again have worked closely with veterinarians, have made sure that each of
(25:48):
these facilitators has complete training to bestaddress mental health for veterinarians. Amazing.
Yeah, and that's so important isbeing able to have a therapist or mental
health progressional that understands your needs andwhat you're going through. So that is
a big advantage to these support groups. And how successful have they been so
(26:11):
far? Are you seeing an improvementwith the veterinarians that take the program?
Yeah? Absolutely. You know,this was a little bit of a leap
of faith. We thought that itwas going to make a difference, but
we weren't really sure. So weran some pilot groups and the response was
really really encouraging. Two of thethree groups we ran right away there there
were tears the very first day,you know, not tears of sadness,
(26:33):
but we had veterinarians telling us,Oh my gosh, I feel seen and
understood for the first time in mylife. You know, I feel like
this counselor understands me better than Iunderstand myself. You know, I feel
like I can relate to these otherveterinarians in a way I've never had these
connections before. And you know,they have chosen, like I mentioned before,
(26:55):
they've actually chosen to stay in touchand maintain these groups beyond the six
weeks where we created the facilitator sessionsfor them, and so I you know,
I think the early signs indicate thatwe are meeting a need that's there,
and then it really is making adifference for people. One of our
participants wrote, and you know,in the little assessment afterward, this is
(27:15):
something that I wish every single veterinarianhad access to, and it is life
changing for me. And so gosh, if we could do that even for
one person, that's already rewarding.But if we can do it on a
larger scale and make a difference,you know, for even a small percentage
of internarians and we can help protecttheir mental health, then you know,
we have done our job right.And that makes a lot of sense.
(27:37):
It's it's so important. You know, I don't know too much about either
the human medical field or the animalmedical field, but I can almost positively
say that there is probably something,maybe many things like this for human doctors,
if you want to call them that. So having this for veterinary care,
(28:03):
I think it makes a lot ofsense. Even if people don't think
about it, when you really thinkabout it, it makes a lot of
sense to have. So, Yeah, there are a lot of groups out
there for veterinarians who are in crisisnow, and those are wonderful and they're
doing very important work. Our goalis to try to reach people before they're
in crisis to try to protect mentalhealth, you know, rather than wait
(28:27):
until they need postvention. You know. We're trying to sort of do what
we can to intervene and give toolsso that they don't reach a crisis point.
And there may be other groups doingthe same thing, we're not aware
of it. And we feel likethe more people that are trying to protect
mental health, the more people fightingfor the mental health for veterinarians, the
(28:47):
better. So we are happy tobe in the company of people who are
doing everything they can and approaching thisproblem from all different directions, of course,
And so where can people go toregister for the support group or learn
more about the veterinary Hope Foundation.So Veterinary Hope dot Org is our website
and you just go to the mainmenu and click register, or if you're
(29:11):
not a veterinarian and you want tohelp, you can click donate. So
we've tried to make it again asuser friendly as possible. You just fill
out an online form and we willget back in touch and talk to you
about affinity groups and what works foryour schedule and kind of go from there.
Amazing. Yeah, and since theVHF is a nonprofit, you guys
(29:32):
collect donations and need these donations tocontinue with your work. Obviously, you
guys probably have to pay the medicalprofessionals and pay for the Zoom subscription and
all that fun stuff. So youcan go to the Veterinary Hope Foundation website
Veterinary Hope dot org and when youclick on the little home icon, it
(29:56):
will take you to a page thatsays donate and you can go there to
donate and help out. Yeah,it would be great, yes, And
so do you have any plans toexpand your reach or you know what you
are doing in the future. Youknow, our big goal right now is
(30:19):
to be able to extend care tothe entire animal medical team, maybe as
early as next year, depending onagain funding and how quickly we can move
forward and scale our program. Butthere is other support for veterinarians. There's
not much support out there for veterinarynurses and for front desk team members,
(30:41):
all of whom are subjected to alot of the same emotional pressure, maybe
not to the same level as veterinarians, but they have different challenges than we
do, and we want to helpthem as well. So as soon as
we get our program for veterinarians wellunder way, our next big goal is
to help the entire animal care team. Amazing, Yeah, and that makes
a lot of sense. I mean, I'm sure many people can understand.
(31:02):
Even if you're just sitting next tosomeone who is going through the motions of
losing a pet or a loved onein general, you kind of feed off
of that energy. And I imaginewhen you're doing that all day in the
same environment every day for weeks onend, even if you're not dealing with
(31:25):
the people face to face, itcan be really stressful. Still, absolutely,
yeah, and we couldn't do ourjobs without them, so we want
to make sure we're supporting them aswell. Yes, exactly, that's amazing.
And is there any way that peoplewho are not medical professionals or even
(31:47):
in the community at all, howcan we support our beloved bets. You
know, I think the most helpfulthing is just remembering that we are all
on the same team. We reallydo everything we can for the health and
well being of our patients. Andso if you can go into every VET
appointment seeing us as partners or alliesinstead of adversaries, it makes a big
(32:10):
difference. You know, realize thatwe're on the same team. A lot
of people go to the VET thinking, oh, my god, I have
to go to the VET today,or oh it's going to be five hundred
dollars, or oh I'm going tohave to wait an hour, you know,
and so before we even walk inthe room, it's like playing defense,
right, And so if we canjust meet where we are and understand
that we are human beings doing thevery best we can for every single patient,
(32:31):
and if we work together as ateam instead of against each other,
your animal is going to do better, and your family is going to do
better, and the veterinarian is goingto do better. We're all in this
together, exactly, And you know, I guess you could probably consider veterinarian
service workers. They are humans,so be kind. And again, if
(32:52):
you want to find the Veterinary HopeFoundation, it is Veterinary hoped or or
Veterinary Hope on Instagram, Facebook,and we'll be right back at Nava Pets.
We know how important your furry companionsare, so we want to help
(33:15):
keep them happy and healthy. Ourorganic hemp products are especially formulated to enhance
the well being of your beloved pet. But don't worry. Our hemp supplements
don't contain any of the psychedelic stuff, so your animal will receive all the
health benefits and still be the petyou know and love. Your furry friend
is sure to enjoy the organic PetHemp Tincture, which infuses anti inflammatory plant
(33:38):
properties and omega fatty acids, providingfor a more mobile and energetic pet,
while also assisting with any chronic painor medical conditions your pet may be experiencing.
Our hemp products also give a naturalcalming effect, perfect for the continuous
barkers or those stressed out cats.We also offer a range of flavors,
(33:58):
including bacon, peanut butter, andsalmon. What's not to love at navopets
dot com. You can spoil yourpet with goodness. Treat your pet like
they treat you. Welcome back,pet family. We are here with Elizabeth
(34:27):
Chosa from the Veterinary Hope Foundation andwe were talking about some of the things
that the support groups do and waysthat we can help our vets have a
safer and easier time when working withour pets, but also us humans.
So for me and a lot oflisteners, I can bet this is probably
(34:51):
the first time that we've really puta lot of fine into our veterinarians and
how they may be feeling during theircareers. And of course is not because
we don't care. You typically don'tget to sit down and ask your bet
if they're okay, and it maynot always feel appropriate to do so.
So Elizabeth, is there any waywe can bring awareness to the importance of
(35:15):
mental health support for our bets outsideof the clinics, And how do we
let them know that we do care? You know, I think it can
be really simple. I think justsaying thank you for what you do,
you know, to your vet thenext time that you're in. What's interesting
is I have wonderful clients that I'veknown for a long time, so this
(35:37):
doesn't always apply to me. Buteven with that, I still mostly only
receive thank yous for end of lifecare. Most often somebody says thank you
after I've ended the pets life,you know, or maybe I have these
hero moments right where an animals hitby a car or something where I save
its life. But the day today, in and out appointments, like
I mentioned before, sometimes feel moreadversarial than they necessarily need to be,
(36:00):
So just saying thank you would begreat. Or maybe next time you're at
the vet if you have to wait, and I know you're frustrated. I
hate waiting for appointments too, butbefore you complain, just take a deep
breath and realize that we may becaring for an impatient in the back that
you can't see that has just crashed, or we might be on the phone
with a client who is having tomake a life ending decision for their pet,
(36:22):
or we might be counseling somebody throughsomething that is one of the hardest
days of their life. And soif you're waiting, it's not because we
don't care. It's because we're Wehave to sometimes treaze, just like a
human hospital does. And so ifyou can just kind of meet us where
we are, that can make abig difference. You're not going to see
(36:43):
what's going on behind the scenes,and we're not always going to tell you
what's going on behind the scenes becauseit's not appropriate. But I think that
can make a big difference. Ithink also one of the things that's hard
right now is online reviews for veterinariansand a lot of times online accusations.
You know. Again, emotions runreally high when we're talking about life and
(37:04):
death of our pets, and it'sand we understand that, and particularly because
money is involved, you know,healthcare for pets. Most people don't have
insurance, and so even though weare providing care at a fraction of human
medicine for a lot of the sameservices, there's no insurance to offset those
costs, and so people get reallymad at us. And it's a it's
(37:27):
a tender topic. So I wantto be careful how I talk about it.
But every time somebody says you're init for the money, that's like
an arrow through our heart because wehave given our whole lives for the wellness
of animals, and so we tryreally hard to limit costs when we can.
Everything is more expensive in the worldnow, just like gas prices,
everything is, you know, exponentiallyincreasing for animal care costs, and so
(37:52):
if we can work together within yourbudget, that is always our preference.
It's heartbreaking for us when we knowhow to fix a problem and we know
how to help an animal and wecan't because of financial constraints, and so
that's one of the things that's hardin our career over and over again.
And if we can meet people andhave open, caring conversations about that instead
(38:12):
of adversarial conversations, that can makea big difference too. And if you
do see accusations lobbied online against veterinarians, if you can just take a deep
breath and not jump into the fray, that would be great, because sometimes
those situations get pitchforks out of controlfor people who have never met the veterinarian
or never met the animal involved.And we can't always defend ourselves online and
(38:36):
so that's one of the places thatcan be really challenging as well, of
course. Yeah, so basically,just be kind, just be nice,
Yeah, just be nice and realizewe're humans and we really are doing the
best we can and veterinarians for themost part, are really really caring people
And the only reason we're doing thisis because we love animals and we really
are doing the best we can.And if you can just go into it
(38:58):
with that assumption, assume the bestof our intentions, consider the worst,
that can make a big difference forthe whole family. Amazing. So lastly,
I know we have some listeners whowork in the animal medical community.
Well would you say to someone whoworks with animals and is currently struggling mentally?
I think the most important thing isto know that you're not alone.
(39:21):
You're never alone, and that thethings that you are feeling and struggling with
are normal and there's nothing wrong withyou, and that asking for help is
not a sign of weakness. That'sthe most important thing, the stigma that
we have to get over. Youknow, there's a lot of help available
from a variety of resources. VEdon't A Hope Foundation is just one of
them, and there are different resourcesfor different people. But the feelings of
(39:45):
isolation can be very powerful, andI just want people to know that they're
not alone and that there are lotsof us that are here dedicating our time
and energy to making sure that youare okay and that you have the help
you need to continue to do wellin our field. Yes, family,
if you are loved when are strugglingwith suicidal ideation, the National Suicide Prevention
(40:07):
Lifeline number is one eight hundred twoseven three eight two five five, and
for our podcast listeners that number willbe in the description. So, Elizabeth,
thank you so much. Could youtell everyone where to find the Veterinary
Hope Foundation? Sure? So,you just go to Veterinary Hope dot org
(40:29):
and you can click through our littlestory there and go to the menu.
If you're a veterinarian, you canregister for help. If you're not a
veterinarian and you want to make adifference, you can donate. Even a
dollar would be great so that wecan continue to help veterinarians as much as
possible for as long as possible.Amazing. Thank you so much for everything
that you guys do. I thinkthis is extremely important and I hope our
(40:51):
listeners can take away that veterinarians arehumans too, and you know they know
that you are struggle as well whenyour pet is in crisis, So just
be kind if that's the one thingyou guys take away from this that would
be amazing. Absolutely, thank thankthank you so much, Thank you so
(41:14):
much to you Elizabeth Chosa for comingon to our show again. Guys.
If you are in need of somehelp, you guys can go and check
out the Veterinary Hope Foundation at VeterinaryHope dot org and as well check out
the National Suicide Prevention number in thedescription below. Thank you so much.
(41:37):
I've been your co host, TayShuemaker, and thank you again to Elizabeth,
and we will see you next time, same place, same time next
week. Thank you, guys,and goodbye, thank you, thank you.
We'll see you next week. Thankyou for joining us on Pet Owner
(42:00):
Diary. Make sure to visit ourwebsite pet Ownerdiary dot com, where you
can sign up for our newsletter,view show highlights, and download each episode
via SoundCloud. Make sure to subscribeto the show on your favorite podcast app
too, so you and your petnever miss an episode. Pet Family.
If you like what you hear,please share on your social media and tell
(42:22):
a friend to tune in on behalfof America's Pet Owner Coach Janelle Young.
We wish you love, peace andharmony with your pet. We'll catch you
in the next episode,
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.