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Posted: 23rd January 2015

Recognising and tackling mental illness
max pemberton
Work intensity, long working hours and feeling undervalued were highlighted as three main triggers of mental illness in the profession.
One in three vets report symptoms of depression or anxiety

We should not be afraid to talk about mental illness and discussing issues such as suicide - this was the key message from Dr. Max Pemberton during a talk today at the VPMA/SPVS Congress 2015.

Kickstarting the mental health stream, Dr. Pemberton gave delegates an overview of mental health problems which specifically relate to the veterinary industry.

He spoke about the view of the profession by the general public, which tends to be that vets are very well paid and that they enjoy their job because they love working with animals. However, the reality is that vets are not as well paid as some may think. There are significant financial stresses that vets can face, and there is a lot of lone working too - something which is routinely identified as one of the most significant risk factors for mental health.

According to Dr. Pemberton, one in every three vets report symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of depression or anxiety. Two in three vets are classified as 'at risk' drinkers, and one in every four report suicidal thoughts. "There are three to four times higher rates of suicide amongst vets compared to the general population," he said. "This is twice higher than doctors."

So why is mental illness a problem within the profession?  Dr Pemberton identified three main areas: work intensity, the duration of working hours and the effect this has on personal lives, and feeling undervalued by senior staff and management. He stressed that there is a "a very clear economic reason" why we should be prioritising mental health within the workplace. This is because it is currently the leading cause of suffering and economic loss in the country, and accounts for over 15 per cent of the disease burden.

Dr. Pemberton then moved on to discuss the top five mental heath problems which can affect vets, listing their clinical features,  their prognosis and the options for treatment.

Top of his list was depression - something that people generally tend to associate with feelings of unhappiness or crying. However, when talking about the clinical features of depression, Dr. Pemberton said that it is hard to depict because it is not a visual phenomena. The typical image we see of a person putting their head in their hands is not a key feature of the condition. Instead, it is about a loss of interest and enjoyment in ordinary things, and is associated with emotional, cognitive and physical symptoms such as altered sleep, loss of libido, poor attention and negative thoughts.

During the lecture, Dr. Pemberton also spoke about the clinical features of stress disorders, generalised anxiety disorder, grief reaction and eating disorders.  He finished by dispelling some of the the myths surrounding suicide.



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