• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • FREE E-BOOK
  • COVID-19 HELP
  • FELLOW LOGIN

Clinical Scholars

Lead the Way to a Culture of Health

  • ABOUT
    • WHO WE ARE
    • HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS
    • FELLOW TESTIMONIALS
    • BLOG & NEWS
  • FELLOWS
  • PROJECTS
  • COMMUNITY IMPACTS
  • CONTACT US

2020-2023, Cohort 5

Addressing the Veterinarian Mental Health Crisis through an ACT-Based Program 

Home / Projects / Addressing the Veterinarian Mental Health Crisis through an ACT-Based Program 

Veterinarians are experiencing a mental health crisis, with higher suicide risk and poorer well-being compared to other high-risk professions, including dentists, pharmacists, and other medical practitioners.

Mental health stigma in the field prevents treatment-seeking, resulting in an unexpected health disparity. Local veterinary medicine job growth in Northeast Ohio makes this an at-risk and growing group in our community.

Our team has identified specific types of client interactions that predict veterinarian stress and burnout, with veterinarian reaction to these interactions being a more important predictor of negative outcomes than frequency of such interactions alone. We have developed an Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT)-based educational program tailored to reduce reactivity during these veterinarian-client interactions.

We plan to implement our program in veterinary clinics throughout our community, assessing program feasibility and acceptability, and monitoring use of techniques taught. Formal measures of burden transfer, stress, burnout, and mental health stigma will be measured using an online survey format at baseline (prior to ACT training) and follow-up (upon completion and 3 months later). A subset of clinics will be randomized to a wait-list control group, receiving the program after data collection. Data will be analyzed by comparing baseline data to follow-up, as well as program versus control conditions. Using feedback from 2 community stakeholders, we will develop a training module for use in clinical psychology and veterinary social work training programs to make this program sustainable beyond the funding period.

Project Details

Team Veterinary Mental Health
Team Members
  • Alanna Updegraff, PhD
  • Lisa Wiborg, LISW-S
  • Mary Beth Spitznagel, PhD
  • Meg Sislak, DVM, DACVR

LocationKent, Ohio

Focus Areas
  • Behavioral and Mental Health
  • Occupational Health
  • One Health
Resources
  • A Wicked Problem: Solutions from Cohort 2020
  • One Health Day 2020
  • Clinical Scholars Welcomes Cohort 2020-2023!

Footer

CLINICAL SCHOLARS

Clinical Scholars Logo

E-mail: clinical.scholars@unc.edu

Phone: (866) 849-1579

QUICK LINKS

  • View Project Map
  • Join Our Email List
  • Cohort 1, 2016-2019
  • Cohort 2, 2017-2020
  • Cohort 3, 2018-2021
  • Cohort 4, 2019-2022
  • Cohort 5, 2020-2023

LED BY

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

SUPPORTED BY

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

© 2017-2020 Clinical Scholars. All Rights Reserved.
Photos © 2016 Flynn Larsen, Courtesy of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation