LOS ANGELES (KNX) – Veterinarians are often admired and respected for their work in saving and taking care of animals. But it comes at a hefty price.
According to a CDC study published in 2019, almost 400 veterinarians died by suicide from 1979 to 2015 and the number continues to grow.
The pandemic, according to Dr. Indu Mani, fellow at Harvard Medical School for Bioethics and associate veterinarian at VCA Brookline Animal Hospital, is not helping.
“I think that veterinarians currently practicing during the pandemic are overwhelmed not only by patient numbers, but also the state of mind of all of us right now in the midst of a crushing pandemic and psychological stress that our clients and we are suffering together,” Dr. Mani said.
This is not a new trend. Dr. Lisa Moses, veterinarian and bioethicist at the Harvard Medical School for Bioethics, told In Depth, this has been going on for years.
“In fact, I’ve been looking at this problem along with many other folks in my field for about 20 years now,” Dr. Moses explained.
“So we know that it is worse during the pandemic but this by no means a new problem and I think for all of us who are thinking about it, we know that there are lots of reasons why veterinarians are really negatively impacted by the emotional states in our work. But a lot of it is that we’re often caught between what we really think is the right thing to do for our patient, but not being able to do the right thing our patient and that is hard to swallow.”
But Dr. Moses said it’s about more than suicide.
“It’s about veterinarians being emotionally impacted to such a large extent that they’re leaving the profession,” Dr. Moses said. “They’re unable to work in the way they want to work. So we’re concerned more about suicide. We want to make sure that the people who are giving care to your beloved animal family members are able to keep giving care.”
“We just do the best we can,” Dr. Mani said. “We have incredibly close teams and Lisa would know our veterinarians are largely supported by our technicians, our veterinary assistants, our client service representatives, our kennel workers. We all work together to try to create the most strong infrastructure for our patients who are coming to see us.”
Listen to the full interview in the link above.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
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