The Veterinary Council of Ireland (VCI) has launched a mental health survey that aims to understand the factors impacting upon the mental health of veterinary practitioners and hopes to help establish ways the organisation can support its members.

The survey has been designed by an independent team, getting the all-clear from University College Cork (UCC) on ethics and will remain open for completion until Friday 25 June.

“The topic of mental health is an extremely important one to the veterinary professions, and one of the key strategic objectives of the Veterinary Council is to support the health and wellbeing of our registrants,” CEO and registrar of the VCI Niamh Muldoon.

“Previous research conducted by the VCI in 2019 showed that 79% of our registrants believe that supporting mental health and wellbeing is the most important issue facing the veterinary professions today which they would like to see the council work to address.”

Research

The mental health study is being carried out in partnership with the national suicide research foundation and the national office for suicide prevention.

“While the topic has previously been examined on an international level, this is the first major piece of research being conducted within an Irish context, and we hope that this will help to inform our decision making in this area and will provide some insights on how we can best work to support our veterinary professionals,” Muldoon added.

The VCI has also launched the SafeVet handbook in 2020 as an evidence-based guide to managing stress and building resilience in the veterinary professions.

A link to the mental health survey can be found here.