What is veterinary social work?

This episode’s guest, Alicia Kennedy, is a social-hearted veterinarian who provides care to animals but also the people who love them. Through the use of social workers, she has created a practice that centers around the human-animal bond. It is an amazing service, one that we hope others will learn from and perhaps bring into their own practices.

Mentioned in this episode:

Keep it Humane Podcast Network

The Animal Welfare Junction is part of the Keep It Humane Podcast Network. Visit keepithumane.com/podcastnetwork to find us and our amazing animal welfare podcast partners.

Hi and welcome to the Animal Welfare Junction.

This is your host, Dr.

G, and our music is written and produced by Mike Sullivan.

Today's special guest is Alicia Kennedy, a veterinarian coming all

the way from Australia to talk to us about a very important topic,

which is veterinary social work.

So thank you for joining us.

I'm so excited to have you here with us.

You are welcome.

It's good to be here.

So can you first let people know about your background, your

education, and kind of what led you to where you, where you are today?

Absolutely.

That's a good question.

A big question.

So, yeah, I'm much older than you.

I've been around, I've been a vet for, I think it's o over 35 years now.

So I've grown up in, um, Australia and graduated from Murdoch University in 1986.

Um, and stepped straight into, uh, I was actually in mixed

practice for a while, but primarily companion animals over the years.

And it was, even in those early days, I identified that, um, my great love

as a vet was less about cutting things.

I never sort of was drawn to surgery and dentistry and that side of, um, practice.

I really enjoyed the connections that I was creating with my clients,

particularly elderly clients.

And I carved out a, uh, It.

My, my interest was around the human animal bond.

So it was even back in the early days that I recognized that people

share a, this magic relationship with their pets and the difference that

animals can make in humans' lives.

And, formed special connections with some of my elderly clients and started to see

the challenges that they face as life goes through its phases to keep their, uh, pets

healthy and well and together with them.

Uh, so that was a long time ago, and in the decades since

I've done a lot of other things.

Apart from being a vet, so big chapter of my life has been motherhood and rearing

three beautiful girls who are now in their twenties and roaming the world somewhere.

Um, I have one daughter still at home, but the other two are in the uk.

Um, and then I've also had a very significant part of my life working

with the Jane Goodall Institute.

So I met Jane Goodall, uh, in the early two thousands, uh, when we

were actually living in China.

That's a whole other story, uh, but I, I had a big chapter of being a

volunteer with the Jane Goodell Institute and establishing a chapter of the

Jane Goodell Institute in Australia.

And I think everything, every experience that we has leads

us to where we are today.

Uh, but I started to understand, The challenges in the not-for-profit

world, um, in, in the charity world.

Um, and started to really think and consider about how we could

do vet practice differently that was, um, community centered

and accessible to all people.

. The, the original intention with cherished pets was to create a

veterinary service that was dedicated to supporting pets of older people,

because that's where I'd found my

passion in practice was, uh, supporting elderly people with their pets.

And I recognized that in order for elderly people to keep their pets

healthy and well, and together with them, we would need a more

community-focused approach to care.

There was a gap in the system.

Um, a good Who are, who are your listeners for your podcast?

Is it broad community?

Yeah, it's a broad community.

So we reach out to both the community in general, but then animal control

officers, rescue individuals, rescuers, shelters, uh, veterinarians,

people in the veterinary community.

So we try to make our content so that it can reach as many people involved in

animal care and human care as possible.

Yeah.

Great.

So, um, that's good.

'cause I spent.

Like, I see the community as a whole and we all have a role to play in there.

And that's definitely one of the teachings from my experience with the

Jane Goodall Institute is the role that we all play in, in the bigger picture.

I'm a very curious person.

I'm a great one to ask questions about how can we do things better?

So I started to ask the question to myself, and then more broadly, what

do we need to do as a community to support the companion animals of our

elderly people who are often going through life transitions and are often

isolated to help them keep their pets healthy and well and together with them.

And you'll find I repeat that.

Those words a lot because that's, that's kind of the objective of our

service, is to keep pets healthy and well and together with their humans.

And I knew from the beginning that, to provide the, the service

that I was envisioning, that it wouldn't be, people wouldn't be

able to pay for the whole service.

And so that's when the idea of having vol, a volunteer program came into it.

So imagining if you had a veterinary service that supports pets of elderly

people and then you bring volunteers in there to provide some additional

assistance, it becomes accessible.

So my, my thinking back in those days were the seed of cherished pets.

And over the years we've evolved with the how we deliver our service,

which is something that we'll talk more about in this, um, podcast.

The purpose has actually remained the same from the beginning.

So my purpose is very clear and that's to enable the benefits of healthy

companion pets and a thriving human animal bond to be accessible to all people.

Um, my focus as a vet, as it evolved through my career has been

the role of the human animal bond in human health and wellbeing.

And then the way it impacts on animal welfare, which we'll be able to

explore more in this, uh, interview.

That's great what you have brought up because.

Over time, I've always heard individuals in veterinary field, animal rescue field

that say I'm into veterinary medicine, I'm into animals because I don't like people.

And people are an extremely important part of the equation.

So we cannot have the animals without the people or the people without the animals.

So it doesn't matter which way you, you fall, you kind of have to understand

that bond, the, the importance of it.

Uh, and especially in underserved , communities and individuals at risk.

Like the, like you just mentioned the elderly.

Also, we think about people with disabilities or individuals

with mental health problems.

And I know that I saw research recently about how the ownership of a pet can

decrease health and mental health risks.

Like people with animals have, uh, lower risk of obesity, lower risk of

heart disease, lower risk of depression.

So how does the work that you do revolve around that one health

approach to veterinary care.

it revolves around the human animal bond and how

we support the human animal bond.

So exactly what you were just saying, like I feel like we are peas in a pod.

It's just, um, yeah.

It's incredible the way your view of the world is very, uh, similar to mine.

And, you know, I was talking earlier about our origin was to create a

service supporting pets of the elderly.

It very rapidly evolved into much more than that.

And everything that I've done has been with community at heart and very much

integrating a multidisciplinary approach.

So, um, I.

Through the human animal bond.

So I describe myself as a social hearted vet, and what I mean by being a social

hearted vet is that I care as much about the people as I do the animal.

So my, it's essentially, I'm a human animal bond vet.

And when I approach my work as a vet in the consulting room scenario, I'm

not just thinking about the pet, I'm thinking about the human behind the pet.

Now, the, the pet is center of everything.

We are all there together.

And I, and you'll hear me talk more about the team around the pet.

So say the pet is called Sparky.

We talk about team Sparky and we talk about the human.

So you've got the animal is, is the, for the veterinary healthcare and then

the human is, uh, The other part of this, they're one unit and I'm, I've

still yet to find a, a sexier word than unit because it's not a very sexy word.

But essentially I, I treat them as one.

And so in building a plan and making recommendations as a veterinarian

to maintain the health and wellbeing of that pet, we need to consider

the capability of the human.

So this is going somewhere, so stick with me.

So w I started to think about capacity and capability of that

human to deliver on the plan.

So a very simple example of that is prescribing ear medication to an elderly

person who's quite frail, who's not got the capacity or the capability

to administer that medication.

So you're not gonna have compliance with your recommendations for that pet.

Um, and.

Once I started recognizing the capability, um, piece, that's what

led us into supporting pets of people who are experiencing vulnerability.

So in, in our work at Cherished Pets, we, through our social

service, we support five key groups.

Um, so it is the elderly, which was our sort of where we started.

We very rapidly progressed into supporting people living with

a disability through creating a home pet care assistance service.

And we have our volunteer program who we match with our, um, participants.

So the home care assistance program is exactly what it sounds like.

It's giving people assistance to keep their pets healthy and well.

And it, it can be matching volunteers for dog walking, for, uh, trans

transfer and transport of pets.

One of the big ones is respite care of pets.

Now, deliberately used, we've defined our own terms.

We don't talk about foster care of pets.

We talk about respite, pet care, because we're actually, if you think about foster

care, you're talking about looking after pets, animals that don't have a human.

Whereas respite pet care is, um, Looking after someone else's pet, while they're

not able to look after their pet.

And it's got a whole, it's a whole new sort of set of complexity

looking after other people's pets.

Um, our home care assistance program, we also have a community vet nurse, so

we introduced that role eight years ago.

So Glenda was our original community vet nurse who's, uh,

transitioning to retirement.

So she's in her sixties.

It's a beautiful role because she does monthly visits at a minimum,

sometimes more often, sometimes not that often to check in that the

maintenance of the pet is, um, in hand.

So things like, you know, nail trims and checking.

Uh, bottoms that they're not getting daggy and, and, you know, cleaning

up around the face, uh, helping with application of administering

medication, , monitoring weight.

So that's one of our big areas is supporting, uh, nutrition

and weight management programs.

We all know that a lot of these animals that are sort of housebound

in lots of ways have, uh, get over fed and can get o obese.

We see that a lot.

, and yeah, so it, it was designed to be a community centered

wraparound service to keep everyone healthy and happy and together.

Once we started, we then we, we are in a regional community in, uh,

Victoria, in Australia, so about an hour and a half out of Melbourne.

And we found that we started getting requests for crisis care of pets

through domestic violence agencies and homelessness and mental health.

And how we've evolved from seven years ago to where we are today is we are a

regular private veterinary practice.

We run a GP clinic in our local town.

We run a dedicated end of life home service, which was actually the

original private service that I started.

Um, because my thinking back then was the private service will enable me

to support the social service, and we established our charity Cherish Pets

Foundation as an independent charity.

It's got tax deductibility status so that we could run a volunteer program

and raise money for what we call subsidy funding when, when there's a gap.

, as we've evolved and we've, uh, had requests in the crisis care space, I

started to lead that conversation in, in the community because I recognized

that in our region there wasn't a formal response plan for what do we do

with pets when people are in crisis.

I'm a great connector and I love getting out there and talking to

people and, and I, um, was asking the question and nobody was giving me the

answer that I felt was satisfactory.

So in 2017, we actually, and again in 2018, we hosted a community

conversation and we brought together people in the domestic violence sector.

So, uh, the domestic violence agencies, the local shelter, local vets, the

police, the animal management team from the local, uh, council, uh, cherished

pets, a couple of the foster groups.

And I gathered them all together into this room and we got a lovely,

uh, lady to facilitate it, just to start to look at how a pets in Crisis

program might look in our region.

Fast forward to.

22, 23.

It is now our second social service stream as a, um, funded, uh, dedicated

service, which is to provide care of pets when people are in crisis.

And that's not just domestic violence.

We provide our service to, we get referrals from domestic violence agencies,

um, but also mental health crisis.

And at the moment, we were talking about this yesterday, that that's kind of the

biggest area of referrals at the moment.

So when we think about the human animal bond, it is such a powerful

force in our community and it is a key driver of human health and wellbeing.

And it is a key driver of animal welfare.

And this is why I've loved connecting with you.

To deepen this conversation because by having a human animal bond lens to my

work as a vet, it's opened up my sort of thinking, but my, my connections to

the broader community and, and other, um, you know, we'll talk about social

work, but the health professionals, you know, I spend a lot of time talking

to health professionals and people in aged care mental health saying if you

have a client with a pet and you are not factoring that animal into your

care plans for that client, you're not serving the best interest of your client.

Because we know in vet practice, and particularly with the work that you

do, that people will put their animals first sometimes to the detriment.

Of themselves.

And what we've tried to, what we're trying to do with our services is

build that bridge to, , support both.

So it's animal welfare and animal health and wellbeing, and it's

human health and wellbeing.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, absolutely.

And that is, that is exactly.

How I see it is that we have to, we're here to take care of the animals as

veterinarians, but we have to take care of the people taking care of those animals

so that they can take care of them better.

Right.

Uh, I really like the idea that you just said as far as having the

volunteers, helping people with things that we don't even think about,

like medicating a, a dog or a cat, like just taking them for a walk.

Because a big error that a lot of us make is making assumptions about what

the clients can do or cannot do, and then we become judgmental about the

care that they're willing to offer or not without really taking it into

consideration, their ability to do it.

One example that I could say would be like a diabetic cat where you have

somebody bringing in the cat, perhaps an elderly couple brings in their cat,

the cat is diabetic, and then, yeah, we can do all this blood work, we can

do insulin, we can do all these things.

And then the person says, I'm unable to inject the cat.

I'm unable to provide the care that they need.

And in some cases, unfortunately, the cat ends up being euthanized

and there's a judgment and a feeling of being judged by the owner.

I'm not a good owner because I'm unable to offer what my cat needs.

And we have to be very conscious about what, how we can meet the owner,

where they're at to provide that care.

And then also the expense of it all because maybe it is somebody that is able,

capable physically to inject this cat, but they cannot spend the money in doing

the testing, in doing the, uh, in doing the injections and getting the insulin.

So we have to be very careful about what, how we present.

Treatment options and, uh, diagnostics options so that we're not looking

down at people, so we're not making them feel alienated or judged.

Um, and that way also I think it would bring a trust so that they're more likely

to tell you when there's a problem rather than hide it because they're concerned

about how you're going to react to it.

Yeah.

Like, it's like, wow, you are so beautiful and you are so

naturally a social hearted vet.

And you know, I have, we'll, we'll start talking about social work very soon.

, and people have said to me, I'm more of a social worker in some,

I've got that social heart.

Um, I've, you know, as a vet I've.

I often will say I'm not a real vet because I don't cut things and do

all that fancy tech stuff, but I've, as I'm getting older, it's like, no.

Well, I actually play a valuable role in the veterinary industry because

exactly what you were just saying.

Um, and I just wanna pick up a couple of pieces of that.

You talked about being judgemental and so one of the beauties of social

hearted vet practice and having vet social workers that lens of care

is that you do meet people where they're at and it's not judgmental.

And you approach things, you approach your, uh, care and, and your work

with, , kindness and compassion.

And if we are not considering the capability of humans to deliver on

the care, we are failing everyone.

When we talk about capability, we talk about physical capability,

financial capability, and that psychological emotional capability.

And it plays out differently in, in different scenarios.

But you've reminded me of a, a very recent case when you were talking about the

diabetic patient and also because I do end of life, um, the capability of people

impacts decisions around end of life too.

So this was a, um, diabetic dog who I euthanize just yesterday.

So it's really fresh in my mind, but It was a very old dog.

I think she was 14 and they were struggling to, so the, the she'd been

diagnosed with diabetes and they were just in the early first month of managing it.

Um, but the, it's an elderly couple.

They're an elderly couple and he's just recently had, uh, back surgery

and the stress in this household around managing and looking after this dog,

plus the cost of it, led to a, a very honest and open conversation about what

was gonna be best in the long term.

And we made the decision to euthanize the dog.

She had other issues too, so it wasn't just diabetes.

Um, and she was also very anxious herself.

So this concept of best.

We, we have a saying in our practice that sometimes best practice and gold

standard care are not the same thing.

And I think the skill in, uh, for vet, for veterinary teams is to be thinking

about through a human animal bond lens, what is the best for all parties.

Because if people don't have the commitment and the capacity to provide

that level of care that's required to, I mean, managing a diabetic patient is

very challenging for a lot of people, let alone people that are facing

other issues, including financial ones that, um, everyone ends up

suffering in primarily the patient too.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, absolutely.

And in, and in the suffering, we also have to think about how our inability

to take care of our pets properly, especially for the younger veterinarians.

How all of that, and not just to the veterinarians for, but for the

staff in general, how that inability to provide proper care leads to

compassion fatigue and leads to depression, uh, for the veterinary team.

Uh, because we go into, into this field to help and then somebody brings us a pet

that has a problem that is potentially treatable, but we are unable to treat it.

And we see patients that have to be euthanized or that do not

receive proper care because the owner is unable to provide it.

And I think that all of those hardships, uh, a lot of, a lot of

veterinarians and a lot of veterinary staff take that very personally.

And that leads to, to depression and, and problems within the veterinary staff.

Absolutely.

And, and you know, they, there a big, um, so the Australian Veterinary

Association has committed a lot of resources to the mental health crisis

in the veterinary profession and.

I think it was in 21.

Now they did a, a national survey and a lot of vets participated.

Um, and when you, when you look at the, the statistics of what is driving

the burnout and the compassion fatigue and people not wanting to stay in the

profession, a lot of the time it is around the human element of practice.

So we talk about complex human elements.

So you know, your regular, most of our clients are, wonderful

and easy to work with.

But once we start talking about people experiencing vol vulnerability,

particularly around mental health, um, you as a veterinarian or, and actually

I talk about veterinary teams because a lot of this, um, lands in the lap of

the receptionists and the nurses too.

So, , When you're dealing with complex human elements, it really adds to

the moral stress and the emotional burden of the work that we do.

And this is where the veterinary social worker role fits so beautifully in the

veterinary industry and in our community.

By having, and we'll talk more about veterinary social workers,

but, but that their professional people who are skilled and trained

in managing the human elements.

You mentioned that earlier in our conversation.

It's by having that holistic approach to the human animal bond and considering,

uh, multidisciplinary integrated care that you can build support for veterinary

teams and better our out outcomes in delivering the care to the patient.

Yeah.

Our.

I am really super lucky that most of my staff has been with me for many years.

So my managers have been with me for over 10 years.

My technicians have been, the majority of my technicians have

been with me for over 10 years.

And I would love to say that it's because I'm just this awesome boss, but I am very

difficult to work with or to work for.

But I think that what it comes down to is that they don't have that problem

with dealing with individuals that are constantly saying no, that are

constantly saying, I cannot, that the, the animals that come to see us, Need

our need, our service, need our help.

And then they're able to provide that help and they're able to help the patient.

And in some cases, when the individual is not able to afford

something, we try to figure out ways for them to be able to do it.

And again, non-judgmental way.

So I like to think that my staff has been with me for so long,

first, because they're all extremely , kind-hearted people that wanna help

the community and wanna help animals.

But at the end of the day, they can go home after a really long, hard day

of work knowing that what they, did had meaning and it was appreciated.

So they have the, the physical tiredness, but they don't have as much of that mental

tiredness that comes with not being able to provide proper care for the animals and

for the people that are caring for them.

We have a very similar, um, approach to

care here through our model.

So I think what you just said, then I wanna talk about accessible,

affordable care and the role of, um, our care team in that process.

Because I often, I mean, I, I admire greatly, uh, real vets who I've said

that in inverted commas, uhhuh, you know, real vets who work in emergency

centers and, you know, the, the very intense side of veterinary practice,

I, I honestly dunno how they do it.

It's incredible work that they do.

And coming through the pandemic, just so stressful.

So I salute all the vets that work in that space and I often think about,

And I've witnessed it myself actually.

'cause I was, I was at our local emergency with my own, uh, animal at one point

and witnessed some scenarios unfold, you know, while I was in the waiting room.

And the, the pressure and the stress that's playing out in those moments when

people are in crisis 'cause their pets are in some sort of crisis, is pretty intense.

And the average veterinarian is not prepared to deal with the

humans in, in that scenario.

And I think that's where veterinary social workers play such a vital

role in being, providing a buffer.

So, you know, if, if you're a, if you're a veterinarian and, and you've got an

intense situation and the human elements are, exacerbating the, the stress you

can bring in the vet social worker and it becomes a, an internal and then an

external referral pathway and a resource for support to you and support to that

human to navigate what their options are.

So we've created our own, I mean, I I call it like our own little ecosystem

of care because when I started cherished pets, we started a private service.

We wanted to build this social service.

We set up our charity so that we could have an independent stream

of funding to, which has evolved into bridging the gap when people

can't afford, um, full service.

And, I'll mention here too, I mean, cherish Pets is a,

a certified B corporation.

I don't, have you heard of B Corp?

I have not.

What is that?

So B Corporation is a global accreditation for ethical business practice.

So it's not in the vet community, it's in the broader business community.

And so B stands for benefit and the movement started in, in the United States,

um, to become B Corp certified, your business undergoes a rigorous assessment

across five pillars of business.

So it is not just about profit, it's the accreditation that ticks

the profit planet and people box.

So you have to demonstrate that you are being environmentally conscious and

looking at sustainability, but you're being socially conscious and you've

got that, um, social responsibility happening and your people and

culture internally with, uh, how you look after your own people, which.

Sounds like you should look at B Corp from what you were just telling me, because I

reckon Yeah, you are a natural and, , we are the world's first certified B Corp

vet practice, which is something that we take, we very proud of and as part

of demonstrating our social commitment.

'cause it's a, it's an assessment process that you get scored,

you literally get points.

Um, is the fact that we dedicate a lot of our resources and in our start, you know,

in the first few years personally, I, I didn't take a salary so that we could do

more in developing this social service while we built up the charity, , to

create this self-sustaining funding model.

Because everyone always says, well, where does the funding come from?

Now we.

Provide the social service at the not-for-profit rate to eligible people.

So our organization structure is, the private practice is a regular vet

practice, so regular fees, um, our end of life service is our signature service.

And so we, we, you know, that's a really beautiful service that we

charge what we should for through the, from the beginning with the quality

of life assessment, through the euthanasia phase and also the aftercare.

But the social service is our social commitment.

And when we, it's designed that nobody profits from that because

I don't believe that we should.

Um, but even with the discount, you would probably appreciate that a

lot of people I know what, how bad it is in Australia at the moment.

A lot of people are still struggling to access affordable vet care.

And so the, the.

Concept of having funding packages through the charity developed.

The role of the charity is to fill that bucket of money,

which is easier said than done.

It all sounds very lovely on a podcast, but it's actually really, really

hard work and making this service, uh, sustainable and scalable is,

is where I spend a lot of my time.

Um, because we know that the model is working on a very small scale, but to.

The, the, it's a very complex model, our model, and there's lots of pieces to it.

And so to replicate that is not easy and will 100% require

a whole of community response.

So people hear me talking about you gotta put into the bucket.

And the people that put into the funding bucket are our state government.

So we got a very exciting grant from the state government in 22 to support

the development of our vet social work service and to support, um,

specifically our crisis care service.

So that's allowed us to get a lot of, uh, traction and development

in our vet social work program, but we can't depend on government.

So we also, through our private practice support, you know, we, we

provide support into the charity, but.

It's the majority of private donors into the charity are our private clients.

So I mentioned earlier about community engagement is key.

The human animal bond is one of the most popular things on the planet.

I think you only have to look at how social media gifs of dogs

and cats go through the roof.

People love animals.

It's, it's one of the few constants in our community.

Um, you know, I go into people's homes through our end of life

service and our social service, but our end of life service, we offer

to everyone, to all pet owners.

So it's not just the social service.

And I go into the wealthiest homes and homes in, you know,

the poorest areas and I.

The full spectrum, very clean, white, tidy houses.

They're always wash to the hoarders homes.

And one of the things that's consistent in our community is the

love that we feel for our pets.

I, I think it's one of the few things that is across sectors.

You know, we live in, we live in a siloed society where it's either aged

care or mental health or disability, or domestic violence or homelessness.

, a very typical client profile for cherished pets is an older woman with

a background of domestic violence, who's facing housing insecurity

because of her financial situation.

Very often with mental health issues, and more often than not, with some

chronic illness or a disability.

So, so many people.

Tick all those boxes, and you can't just approach care depending

on which silo that you fit in.

And in the middle of that human's life, in that woman's life is her

cherished pet, who is the reason that she gets outta bed every day.

And when that pet becomes unwell, it's a very stressful scenario.

So that takes me back to talking about life in emergency and these stressful

scenarios that are playing out because if, if my child couldn't access the

care that it needed and I was turned away because I couldn't afford to

pay, stress can escalate very quickly.

And that's where abuse can happen.

The client abuse and you know, wouldn't.

Don't for a minute endorse any level of abuse.

But I think having an understanding of what is driving some of those scenarios is

what we need to start paying attention to as a profession, but also as a community.

, you know, we, imagine a society without vets think about, well, we talk a lot

more now here about the social value of vets and why vets play an intrinsic

part in healthy, thriving communities.

So, I know I'm jumping around because this is what I do because it's complex,

but I'm gonna go back to my bucket now.

Okay.

So we, we've had some funding from the government.

Our private clients love our social mission and our purpose and

what we are doing in community.

So they're our best donors into our charity.

Then there's philanthropy, um, and high net worth individuals

and bequests and things like that.

, we haven't had a bequest yet because we're still quite young, but that's

certainly potentially how we can contribute to our funding bucket.

And then it's the, the industry, so the vet industry and companies and,

um, you know, I, I have this dream of everyone pitching in and creating

this funding scheme where people can, um, access funding packages,

but, Through an eligibility process.

Uh, I think, I think we can't go any further in this conversation, g,

without talking about vet social work.

Let's talk about that.

Yes, please.

Uh, because I, I had the opportunity to visit, , an organization called,

, Inter Faith Housing, Housing Network.

And, , part of the sponsor that was at that facility is a

group called My Dog Is My Home.

And it's a really nice idea because it's basically saying kind of like

people say, home is where the heart is, it's home is where my pet is.

And they, they provide primarily housing assistance for families that

are experiencing housing difficulties.

Uh, a lot of work with victims of domestic violence, , individuals

that are experiencing homelessness.

, there was a really sad case that this lady came in to tell us her story

about how she has three young boys.

And she had a dog and she had a job and all of a sudden she lost her

job, could not secure another job.

One of her children, her youngest son, was only two years old, and

she all of a sudden found herself homeless and she is living out of a

vehicle with her kids and her dog.

And then finally secures a place to be able to go in and they

tell her she cannot have her dog.

And at that point she has to make the decision of, do I have a shelter

for my children, especially my two year old, or do I keep my dog?

And she had to make the heartbreaking decision to put her dog up for adoption.

And thankfully she was able to follow up and her dog was adopted to a good family.

So she at least has that knowledge, but she's always gonna have that

heartbreak that basically in her eyes, she had to give up her, one

of her kids to help the other three.

Uh, this is where this, uh, interfaith group came in and helped

her secure affordable housing in a place that is pet friendly.

So she is able, she still, she has to pay for her rent, but she has a

safe place for her and her family.

. She was able to get a dog, which is very important for her family

to have that, that companionship, especially for her, for her own

mental health, to have that dog to, uh, provide that emotional support.

And then they provide social work to help her navigate through all of

the difficulties from taking care of the kids to housing, to work.

So, uh, as veterinaries going through veterinary school, they don't

teach us how to be social workers.

They barely teach us about how to deal with clients, uh, other

than to explain to them diagnosis and, and testing that we wanna do.

So how does the social work piece work into your practice?

Yeah, it's such a, oh, I, I love this question.

So, I first heard the term veterinary social work used at an international

conference before the pandemic.

So it is the International Association of Human Animal Interaction Organizations.

I don't know if you're familiar with that organization i o we call it for short.

And they had a conference and Phil Arkow spoke at it.

Now you're nodding your head yes because anyone with, yeah, anyone with an interest

in pets and domestic violence and the link knows Phil's name 'cause he's the

global guru and I'm on his mailing list.

And yeah, incredible work and I've learned so much by connecting into that network.

And in his presentation at this conference, he talked about

the University of Tennessee's Veterinary social Work program.

And I didn't even really at that point, Understand what social work

was, although I was connecting with social workers already at that

point through our local service.

So I knew that they were out there, but I didn't really understand

the worldview of a social worker.

And I went, I remember going back to my hotel room and, and googling it and

looking up the University of Tennessee program, which is an incredible program.

And, um, and thinking, oh wow, that's what we're doing.

We are kind of doing a form of veterinary social work.

, and up until that point, I think people here just thought we were

kind and soft hearted and over generous and perhaps a bit silly

with the work that we were doing.

And I re it really started to sort of, uh, crystallize the role.

Of the veterinary social worker, but we weren't social workers.

We were social hearted vets and nurses trying to, that when naturally leaning

into that work, like you do very well, like I can tell you now, you just, the

language that you use and some of the things that you've said, you, you've

already got that social worker leaning.

Um, and so then it was complete serendipity.

This is the best story because our organization has our charity

Cherish Pets Foundation and the chair of the charity, Judy Wokie is

a social worker by background and she also happens to, so she got it.

I mean, the reason that she got involved with cherished pets was she appreciated

the role of the human animal bond , in.

Human health and wellbeing because she'd worked with

families, um, and with children.

And that separation that you were talking about before where people

can't keep their pets with them, it's absolutely heartbreaking.

And the system is filing people when that happens.

And the same thing happens here.

Um, so Judy came, so Judy also, uh, supervises social work

students from Deakin University, which is a, in our region.

So she came to me in 2020 and she said, why don't we, um, how would

you feel about having a couple of social work students, some placement?

And I'm like, yeah, I think I said something else before the yeah.

I'm like, yeah, that sounds, that sounds like a heap of fun and really cool.

Let's do it.

So this was just when the pandemic was happening too.

So the first placement was interesting 'cause it was pretty

much everyone was in lockdown here.

Um, But we are now up to our 13th social work student coming through on placement.

And of the 13, 5, 5 of them have ended up getting some form of employment with

us either, um, permanent or casual.

So our original two social workers, Elise and Esther, came to us for one semester.

And in that time we really focused on our vet social work

service as, as an independent service and as a, as a key role.

So by the time they got to the end of their placement,

we couldn't do without them.

So they were our first two employees and Elise is still with us.

Esther's moved on.

So we created an internship for them and then brought them onto

the, , staff, onto the team and.

One of the sayings we have in cherished pets is that, uh, we're building the

plane while we're flying it, so it's, maybe you relate to that, but we run by

the seat of our pants because the, the demand for our service has grown while

we've still been tr organizing the way we deliver it, which I think is the only

way you can start something like this, because if you wait for it to be perfect

and organized, it's not gonna happen.

Mm-hmm.

You've just gotta get in there and you've gotta start it.

And the best thing that we do is learn by our mistakes.

We are constantly reviewing and reflecting, and I love this exchange

of wisdom between the social view of the world and, and vet's view of the

world, because there's no right or wrong here, it's just different perspectives.

Um, but when you bring the two together, you are creating a human animal bond

centered service that has so much to offer the society, the community.

And so, , the.

Veterinary social worker role at Cherished Pets is different to

the University of Tennessee model.

And they, they all have different but similar.

Similar but different.

And I think it's because of the way the services have evolved.

Um, so the University of Tennessee model, um, I don't fully understand it 'cause I

haven't done the program, but it, it is centered around social workers within the

vet industry, which is where we need them.

We need them supporting vets in busy emergency centers and, and um, in the

larger practices, there's definitely scope to, you know, if you had a social

worker on your team for a year, you would think, I can never offer my.

Veterinary service without a social worker on my team.

I do not know how people run practices without that vet social worker resource.

Um, another big part of what the vet social worker does is address that

compassion fatigue, um, and moral stress piece within the team through

debriefing and supervision and, and that intrinsic internal support.

The cherished pets model, its origin was in the community, and it's very much the

role of the veterinary social worker in community health and community outreach.

And a good example of that is sometimes through the human

animal bond and through pets.

Our service becomes a touch point for people who are not

already accessing services.

So I think you were talking about that before.

In the homeless community, this has application across all of

the, uh, sectors, aged care, disability, mental health, domestic

violence, and homelessness.

But sometimes it is the human animal bond and the animal that connects

people into broader services.

And the veterinary social work can facilitate that.

So a good example of that is our work in the community, in our home care

assistance program with the elderly.

So we have a reputation now as a veterinary practice that loves

and supports elderly people.

So I don't actually have the statistic 'cause I haven't worked it out, but.

A lot of our clients are over 60 because they come to us 'cause they know that

we give them special care and they're thriving and they're independent and

they're out there and they're just, they're your regular private clients.

As life goes through its phases and things start to happen, such as a health event

or general aging and health decline, people start to lose their independence.

And our practice can refer an elderly client to our care team when we start to

think they might need extra assistance.

So we refer to the care team and then um, they can access the volunteer

program and the community vet nurse.

Many, there have been multiple times when we've started to connect to

people in their home through the home service and we've recognized that.

They're losing their independence, but they're not yet accessing other supports.

They don't even know that they exist yet.

And so our vet social workers play that really critical.

There, there's a word for it and I can't remember what it is, but it, it's, um,

they play that role in connecting them to the other resources in a kind and

compassionate and nonjudgmental way.

So it is a gateway service.

So the, you know, Ima imagine the bigger picture where the human animal bond is a

and a service like ours and like yours.

'cause you are already doing this.

You just don't yet have a social worker on your team.

But I can tell you now, you're like me five years ago with what you're doing.

And, and I think your vision is very, your heart and your intention

and your purpose is very aligned and your vision is very similar.

Um, that.

The human animal bond is critical in a healthy, thriving community because

it is how people feel comfortable to come and they'll come to the vet

to get care for their animal before they'll go to the doctor to get care

for themselves or before they'll access other services that are out there.

Is that kind of resonating?

Yeah, absolutely.

Because we have clients that experience hunger because they wanna make sure

that their cats or their dogs are fed and they don't feed themselves or they

don't eat as much as they could, or they don't go to the doctor because

it's expensive to go to the doctor and they have things to do or, or bills to

pay, or even they won't go to the doctor because they don't have anybody to take

care of their dog or cat while they're at the doctor if they get hospitalized.

That is absolutely one of the.

Driving experiences for me, setting up cherished pets was I had more than

one client who, you know, I mentioned earlier, I loved my older clients.

I would build that connection and that relationship with

them and get to know them.

And they would tell me as their vet that they were healthy, unwell and

unwell and they weren't gonna tell their doctor, and they weren't gonna tell

their family because they were worried about what's gonna happen to the dog.

And I'm like, oh, okay.

That's not okay.

What do we need to do as a community to provide a service that looks

after the pet while they go and get themselves healthy and well

and bring them back together again?

And of course life happens.

And we have cases like a, a recent crisis care case.

I, I like bringing it back to a story every now and then.

But we had this, this is a really good story to share actually, 'cause

we are probably running outta time.

But, um, her name was Dolly and she.

Came through the crisis service that's been funded by the government

for this year, , because her elderly owner had a health event

and got whisked off to hospital.

So it was a crisis admission into hospital.

So the social worker at the hospital contacted us and we were

able to bring Dolly into our care.

But when she arrived, it was very confronting.

So this is the animal welfare piece that she had a huge ulcerated tumor.

Uh, it was a mammary tumor, I think in her groin, like in on her abdomen.

That was ulcerated.

She was, hadn't been groomed.

She was all matted and knotted.

And you look at a photo of her and I share this photo in our

presentations, and you can very easily jump to the conclusion that she's

been, um, that it's cruel cruelty.

And she's been neglected.

And I often, I often say that,

it's not intentional cruelty, it's unintentional neglect

from a lack of capacity.

And often these pets are loved more than anything in the world, as was Dolly by

her human who had been quoted $2,000 to have the surgery done and he was putting

aside $40 a fortnight or something.

So he had $400 in his bank account reserved for Dolly's surgery.

Well, she was gonna die before he could afford to pay for it.

And so in a way, it was a blessing for Dolly that she

came in for the crisis care.

But with the package funding that we had, we were able to get her health sorted.

Um, and then long story short, he actually never went home again.

His health declined and he was terminally ill.

, and so we also do a re-homing when these pets come into our care, when,

when people have permanent loss of capacity to care for their pets.

And as it turns out, our community vet nurse Glenda, bonded

greatly with this little dog.

So this little dog is still living with her today, but he got to see Dolly a week

before he died and she'd been clipped and groomed and was as pretty as anything.

And she'd had her surgery and the wound had healed.

So the peace of mind that he had, um, on his journey was that Dolly was gonna

be loved and looked after beyond him.

Um, and that's really powerful stuff.

That is, yeah, that is an amazing story because it.

I mean, it brings everything together, right?

Like the dog is, is experiencing a better quality of life.

The owner is able to rest peacefully knowing that, not having that

worry that the pet is suffering or that is not taken care of.

Uh, and yeah, I think that there is, uh, veterinary social work is of great use,

not just for affordable accessible care, like what we do, but just in general.

I think this is an important tool that all veterinarians should be

utilizing, especially the emergency practices, especially the, the

places, the referral practices.

Because most of my clients, I'm gonna be able to work with them,

uh, within our means to help 'em.

But when they have that, , Emergency, whether it be bladder stones or a traffic

accident, something happens and then all of a sudden they find themselves in

that emergency room with thousands of dollars of expense that was not expected.

That is an amazing place for a social worker to come in , and

help that individual along.

And even if the end result is that the pet needs to be euthanized, just

helping them throughout that process because it's just so important.

Exactly.

And it is, it, it's, um, it just allows everyone to catch in that scenario, it

allows everyone to catch their breath, be seen and heard and understood for

where I'm at today, and then to navigate what, where the solutions might be.

And as you said, even if it does go down the euthanasia path, It's a

much gentler kind of process to take people to that point, and it takes

that pressure off the veterinary team.

So the vet, I haven't clarified what the veterinary social worker is.

So a veterinary social worker is a, is a social worker who's professionally

trained and skilled and has, has that, um, training to manage humans, people.

, and they've undertaken additional training around the human animal bond.

So it's, it's like a social worker that's stepping into this emerging

space of the human animal bond and.

You can best.

The way I see a vet social worker in our community is very much

the bridge between human health and wellbeing and animal welfare.

'cause at the end of the day, by supporting and upholding and addressing

the human animal bond, the animal welfare outcomes are significant.

As in the case of Dolly.

And I've got hundreds of examples where by working with the humans, we're able

to improve welfare of the animals.

So through our crisis care service, a good majority of them, I wouldn't say the

majority, it's probably about 50% of them, , come to us in a less than ideal state.

And then through our service, we can improve their health and welfare.

Support the bond and then look at ongoing support for that human to

maintain the welfare of the animal.

, and we haven't tackled some of the curly stuff.

So when I talk about our service, it sounds really nice.

It's actually really hard work, and too often now we've had to address cases

with, you know, an ethical, moral, , conversation around sometimes what is

best for the pet and the human is for them to not stay together when long-term

capacity to keep that pet healthy and well is not able to be sustained.

Then surrender is sometimes, or euthanasia is the best option for

the animal, for the animal's welfare.

They are the really, really hard cases.

And if I didn't have social workers around us to support us through some

of those cases, I dunno where we'd be.

But, um, you know, I was talking about our student placement program

and our, our social work team.

We, we have our Monday morning meeting every week, which is

where a lot of these conversations and case discussions play out.

And we, it's not a one size fits all solution.

You, you've got to have that interdisciplinary approach to care.

Um, just last week we had a meeting with, , the care team of a client

who, um, is a hoarder and a.

Lives in squalor and has got cats and we, her cats are everything to her and

we're trying to help them by working with her support workers and our team

to create a plan where we can keep them together, keep an eye on the cats for

their and, and put boundaries in place.

Absolutely need boundaries in place in this case.

Um, but yeah, keep preserve the bond so that this lady can keep her cats.

And that is so, so important in hoarding because here in the US, and

I don't know if it is the same in Australia, we have a huge problem in that.

Hoarding is not managed properly as a mental health disease.

So when there is a hoarding case, the animals are taken away, the individual

is told you cannot have any more animals, but nothing is really done to help the

mental health portion of that person.

And I feel that, especially in the, in the case of overwhelmed caregiver hoarders,

it is so important to have somebody like a social worker, somebody that can work

with this person to understand why the animals need to move away like the excess

so that they can keep a manageable amount.

And then what the resources are to properly care for those animals.

Because some of these hoarders love those animals way more than

some other pet owners that we would consider good pet owners do.

So we have to take that into consideration.

And again, in the.

Understand if it is truly, uh, unintentional or if it is intentional,

if it is a hoarder that is exploiting or abusing these animals, absolutely.

Then we need to legally approach that.

But these individuals that are really just out resourced, we need

to do so much better as a society.

It doesn't matter if you don't like animals, like you care about the person.

So then you're taking care of the animals to take care about the person.

Also, most people that don't necessarily like animals, I don't feel that they want

them harmed or they want 'em to suffer.

They may just not wanna live with them or in interact with

them, but I think in general, we understand the, the importance.

We just have to kinda act on it and be and be better about it.

Yeah.

And I think we've run outta time, and this is a, that's a good note to

end on in a way, is that the role of animals and the human animal bond.

So my vision.

Is a society where the human animal bond is valued and recognized for the role, the

significant role that it plays in healthy and connected individuals and communities.

And I think this, the siloed approach is not gonna work in the future system.

That, um, it's this interdisciplinary bringing, you know, we talked about the

team approach to pets, but that case that I just shared around the hoarder,

we're all sitting around the table together trying to navigate the solutions

rather than saying this is gonna.

Fail, you know, like it, it's, and, and you know, having this conversation with

the her support workers, who, one of them was a social worker was so from the

heart of recognizing just how important these animals are to her future recovery.

'cause she's already in a program for support.

Um, and if we ignore the role of those animals, we, I, I can't remember the

words that she used, but we will set her progress back if we separate them.

So how can we look at community-based solutions to keep them together without

risking so it's so complex without risking the welfare of the animals.

So yes, we are putting restrictions on numbers.

And so when I said she was a hoarder, she wasn't an animal

hoarder, she's got four cats.

I wouldn't say that's hoarding.

It's not like she's got 40, but she was a hoarder in her home Object hoarder.

Yeah.

But definitely could see the pattern of, she could get, she would

get more cats if she wanted to.

So she's got that very clear line now that, uh, you know, in her support plan

will be monitoring that and she'll be getting the community vet nurse visits

and working with her caseworkers.

And it, it, to me, it's the only way forward is these, these collaborative

care plans and sharing of resources and sharing of heads, hearts, and hands, you

know, in, in community level support.

I'm hopeful that people listening to this episode, this have gained a lot

of information, uh, perhaps even things that they have never, concepts that

they have never been exposed to, and understand the importance of the human

animal bond and the usefulness of the social workers with the veterinary team.

And I know that, you know, I, I am looking forward to.

Looking into ways to incorporate social work students into our veterinary student

program so that everybody can learn at a, at a young age while still babies

in vet school, how to work together to offer better services to the community.

And I, again, I hope that the veterinarians and veterinary teams

that may be listening to this episode, , think at least think about

it or consider the way that they can involve veterinary social work into

the service that they're providing.

I think that ultimately it's not just gonna help their patient who's

gonna help their staff, and it's gonna help them work better and feel

better about what they're doing.

So I really appreciate you taking this time to join us and

to discuss your experiences.

Uh, the work that you're doing is amazing, and I hope to, uh, have more

conversations in the future with you to.

Develop more ways to, to help the community by helping the animals and

the individuals that take care of them.

So beautiful.

Yeah.

I feel like we've just started our conversation.

Yes.

And you know, we can talk until the cows come home.

So I would love to stay connected with you and your community, you know, um,

cherished pets and on social media.

I'm social hearted vet and you know, as we build this community globally, um,

connecting and, and follow each other.

But I think it is an exciting shift in the vet industry to see recognition of the vet

social worker role as being an upstream solution to the mental health crisis.

And then in the local community, the vet social worker role.

Brings relief and support to the service providers.

You know, we, we get referrals from people who are the, the health providers

who are just like, we dunno what we would do if cherished pets wasn't there.

So, you know, it is, it's an emerging field and definitely

will be part of the landscape of thriving communities into the future.

So thank you.

You well,

uh, thank you so much.

And yes, we'll definitely keep in touch.

Uh, I follow you very closely on LinkedIn and everything that you do.

So thank you for, again, for the work that you're doing.

Thank you for taking this time and to everybody that's listening, hope that

you have learned something and thank you for listening and thank you for caring.