Depression and Mental Health

RE: Depression and Mental Health

maylane — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 19:30:06 GMT

Great to see this topic is being raised.

Mental health issues have such a stigma attached to them but most of us at some point in our lives will face depression or anxiety to varying degrees.

Making the whole team aware of the signs of stress/anxiety/depression is so important, that person who appears grumpy/quiet/stressed may be in desperate need of a few kind words and a bit of support which often gets missed.

RE: Depression and Mental Health

lemonearth905 — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 14:09:36 GMT

Thats Great that the RCVS and BVNA are joining forces to address this issue, but what we need from this is a cpd on what to look for and how to support our staff.

a flow diagram would do, something easy that can be referred to.

RE: Depression and Mental Health

Fiona Andrew — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 20:15:28 GMT

Hello,

BVNA are acutely aware of the issues facing Veterinary Nurses with regards to stress, depression and self harm. This is why we commissioned out Wellbeing Survey in 2013. Using the information from over 1200 respondents we put together a programme of articles in our monthly Journal VNJ, included mental health in our Annual Congress (A practical approach to mental health & substance misuse in the veterinary nursing profession) and are currently working with organizations which provide support and assistance to ensure that there are Vet Nurse signposts to all of these resources.

BVNA are currently working with the RCVS on their Mind Matters working group http://www.rcvs.org.uk/news-and-events/news/mind-matters-initiative-new-veterinary-mental-health-and/ where we are the only group representing Veterinary Nurses. Some of the outcomes are expected to be courses on self help and on helping those we work with.

BVNA are particularly interested in ensuring that Student VN’s are introduced to the concepts around mental wellbeing and will be working on projects this year with this group.

BVNA would love to hear from RVNs with their experiences of resources which are available to them.

RE: Depression and Mental Health

Lizzie Lockett (RCVS CEO) — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 13:07:34 GMT

We (RCVS) have just launched a new initiative looking at mental health and wellbeing issues within the veterinary team and one of the things we will be considering is some kind of course that people can go on to help spot the early signs of an issue and be in a position to signpost to relevant sources of help - is that the kind of thing you had in mind?

You can read more about the project in the news section: http://www.vetnurse.co.uk/b/veterinary-nursing-news/archive/2014/12/12/157274.aspx#.VJAuDE1ybcs

Best wishes

Lizzie

RE: Depression and Mental Health

lemonearth905 — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 13:35:12 GMT

very interesting statistics, maybe if the hours and pay were better more RVN's would stay in the profession. I found that talking to the nurses who needed help was the first stage, but being able to offer the right kind of advice was a bit tricky.

RE: Depression and Mental Health

lemonearth905 — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 13:32:48 GMT

Would love for you to post the date of this course on here as I feel a lot of nurses in management would find this usefull in coping with mental health and depressed nurses.

RE: Depression and Mental Health

Mark Hedberg — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 10:08:13 GMT

We ran a Mental Health Awareness day at CAW in October - we've got plans to run it again in 2015, would anyone mind if i post here when I've got it scheduled?

(Nurse mental health needs to be front and centre, it's not just vets who get stressed and burned out!)

RE: Depression and Mental Health

Sal the 1st — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 16:42:51 GMT

there's quite a bit on here about this on various threads

RE: Depression and Mental Health

elaine elder — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 14:28:55 GMT

I think this is a great post. my dissertation was on the mental wellbeing of veterinary nurses, inspired by both my own struggles with anxiety and after losing a vet friend to suicide. There was very little research into the wellbeing of veterinary nurses, even though vet stress and suicide had been highlighted in recent years. RCVS questionnaire more nurses than vets said they found their job stressful. During my research I found some links for nurses and poor mental wellbeing. nurss in the 20-30 bracket, nurses who work in practice rarthee than rep etc., nurses who worked over 40 hrs a week and nurses on lower pay scales all scored poorly on the mental wellbeing scale. Also found out people with families scored higher but a high majority of vet nurses don't have children and continue to practice. It was all very similar to research found in "human" nursing.

i would love to see some sort of stress coping training incorporated into the course.

however the best thing you can do is be there for them, encourage them to talk. Quite often once you tell someone about it you feel much better because you aren't trying to hide it all the time x