Vetnews | Mei 2024 2 « BACK TO CONTENTS “Animal care professionals are some of the most pain-saturated people I have ever worked with. The very thing that makes them great at their work, their empathy and dedication and love of animals, makes them vulnerable” – Psychotherapist J. Eric Gentry KNOW YOURSELF – WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT The World Veterinary Association Congress, in Cape Town has come and gone. Reports received is that it was a major success with participants enjoying the quality and variety of topics presented. Various reports will be made about the congress, but I want to dwell on the opening and closing sessions. The official welcoming was by Minister Ivan Meyer, the Minister of Agriculture of the Western Cape Government. In his welcoming speech, he highlighted the importance of veterinary services in the Western Cape and announced that since last year the Western Cape officially celebrated a week for veterinary services, a week that has now formally been included in the department’s plans and budget for the future. May this example extend to all other provinces to highlight the importance of veterinary services in the economy of our beloved country. His welcoming speech was followed by some official business, after which the attendees were introduced to the harsh conditions of delivering veterinary services under conditions of war by Prof Nataliia Klietsova, a Professor in International Relations, and Dr Andrii Kietsov, inter alia a veterinarian in Sumy Ukraine on “Resilience of animals and doctors of veterinary medicine under conditions of war in frames of One Health”. What an emotional and shocking experience. After their presentation, a lot of time was spent with the couple to try and understand how they cope with the situation and what can be learned from them. I will get back to this. After their very emotional presentation, it was time for Prof Annemarie Hattingh, with more than 30 years of experience in professional development and learning, to address the delegates on “Have I signed up for this? Re-constructing my professional identity in the intersection of ideals and supercomplex, catastrophic realities”. She got off to a very emotional start as most of the delegates, herself included, still had to wipe and swallow the tears of the previous presentation. Her focus was on the removed reality of what you thought you were letting yourself into, and the stark reality of veterinary services and what you can do to try and cope. The final item of the closing ceremony was performed by Jedd DeGenerous, a beatboxer. Not only was his performance amazing, but he also shared his sad difficult story with the delegates. His whole family were addicts of a sort, but he found his solace in music. Music became his escape valve for all the stress. He could have so easily fallen into the trap of addiction. What was a common golden thread through all these presentations, also reverberated later in some of the presentations, is that you need to know yourself to be able to learn how to cope with difficulties. We as veterinarians are so focused on our patients, clients and the service that we must render, that we forget about ourselves. Our good character traits are those that also make us vulnerable. After the congress, I was contacted by Dr Etienne van der Walt from Neurozone who surveyed SAVA last year about the mental wellbeing of our veterinarians. They, after listening and participating in the congress, took the results and further analysed them(The report will be published in VetNews) and concluded that our veterinarians are in dire straits, much worse than expected, and urgent intervention should be instilled. I want to appeal to all veterinarians to, if not already done, initiate a process to know yourself and to learn how to cope with stressors. SAVA is committed to the process of supporting our members through the development of the necessary tools and programs, but need your support. The veterinary community’s mental wellbeing should and must be a collective effort of all our members as we all play an extremely important intricate role in it. I, as President of SAVA, want to appeal to every member to support SAVA’s efforts to bring a change in the mental health profile of Veterinarians. Even if our efforts make a difference in only one member’s situation, preventing him/her from committing suicide, it will already be an extremely important accomplishment. v Kind regards, Paul van der Merwe From the President Dear members,
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