VN September 2023

Vetnuus | September 2023 2 You have been bombarded in the past few weeks with messages reading: “SAVA is concerned about the mental health and well- being of the profession. As such, we have engaged the services of Neurozone to assist us in understanding individual and group resilience. Neurozone has extensive experience in developing similar research and targeted intervention for medical professionals.” Yes, indeed we are not only concerned but deeply concerned. In this past month yet another young and upcoming veterinarian committed suicide. We need to get to the bottom of the mental health challenges facing our veterinarians and actively develop interventions to assist and uplift our colleagues. The dire status of mental health of veterinarians and other health professionals is not only a South African phenomenon. Through our interaction with our International Veterinary Officer’s Coalition (IVOC) colleagues, it is an international crisis that is getting serious attention. It is going even beyond the normally perceived stressors to include aspects such as menopause in the veterinary workplace. Therefore, my sincerest thanks to all of you that has made the effort to complete the questionnaire. We got a significant sample size but wished we could get more responses to make the results as comprehensive as possible. The end product will benefit not only our members but all veterinarians and hopefully, contribute to the international veterinary and professional community. Through the questionnaire, those external factors impacting South African veterinarians specifically will be identified and, more importantly, the resultant internal reaction to those external stressors will be quantified. Once quantified a Resilience Index will be developed for South African veterinarians that will pave the way for individualised Resilience Indexes, an index that can measure your resilience and guide you in what can be done in improving it. Programs will then be developed to develop resilience, especially among our younger colleagues, that will be included in the mentorship programmes. Any colleague who wishes to participate in these programs will be free to do so. If we find that these programs contribute to a mentally resilient veterinary workforce, we will offer our services and programmes to our IVOC colleagues. May the concomitant resilience training programs be the catalyst in turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones for a mentally healthy profession that will take its rightful place in ensuring the health and welfare of animals, humans and the environment alike. v Kind regards, Paul van der Merwe From the President Dear members, There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them. 24-Hour, Toll-Free Helpline: 0800 21 21 21