Researching Veterinary Social Work Schools and Programs-Interview

Interview with a local VSW

Courtesy of news.mpbn.net

Yesterday I was fortunate to have a phone conversation with a local Veterinary Social Worker,  but I didn't ask permission to use her name or the facility where she provides services so she will remain anonymous in this post.

The VSW is a clinical social worker slash therapist offering traditional and animal-assisted psychotherapy.  She has her own practice but also works about 30 hours in a local specialized veterinary referral clinic.  She stated that her own experiences prompted her to pursue the VSW certificate.  She studied with Dr. Strand at University of Tennessee Knoxville and found the program to be very satisfying.  She has also done extensive work with the AHELP project.  She is taking University students as interns and stated that it was "too bad" that I was already finished with MSW although I didn't view it that I had somehow missed out on an opportunity as there are many ways to reach a personal goal.

She explained she had built a relationship with the veterinary clinic through her own experiences with her pet; due to this and her private practice experience, she was able to complete her service learning project (required by UTK) at this veterinary facility and was subsequently hired on as their VSW.  She provides grief and bereavement services to the facilities [human] clients, compassion fatigue services to the facilities staff, and facilitates community grief groups.

Some of these specific services include:

• Grief support humans who have lost their pets
• Assistance with critical care and end of life decisions
•  Working as a liaison between veterinary staff and their clients
• Supportive services with euthanasia 
• Crisis intervention
• Referrals to community resources including memorials

When I first heard the term "Veterinary Social Work" I had a preconceived notion in my head what that would entail, so this conversation was incredibly helpful.  The more information I'm gaining the more this discipline sounds like a social work description of palliative and hospice care.

According to the State by State Licensure Guide palliative and hospice social workers provide services to individuals and families nearing end of life including:

• Offering support to families
• Making sure patients have the resources to be physically comfortable
• Providing for emotional and spiritual needs
• Acting as care coordinators or navigators
• Helping families to understand options and paperwork

So, with risk of heading down that proverbial rabbit hole, I will simply mention here that it seems a bit complex breaking into this new social work field and I'm reminded when looking into specialty certificates for Social Work Hospice and Palliative care.  The Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network offer certificate programs for post Master's graduates, but the network of professionals require experience in the field.  I'm sure with more research I will find additional certificate or continuing education hours but for now I will leave it at that, as the purpose really, was to find a parallel with both services in attempt to find out if Veterinary Social Work is for me.

Researching Veterinary Social Work schools and programs-UTK

University of Tennessee Knoxville

When I started researching Veterinary Social Work (VSW) there was one primary program that came up and that was the University of Tennessee Knoxville's VSW certificate training.  This link will take you directly to their website where I found several pages including services, education, people, resources, summits, and upcoming events.  Their tag line reads: Attending to human needs at the intersection of veterinary and social work practice.  The four main areas of study are:

• Compassion Fatigue and Conflict Management
• Animal-Assisted Interventions
• The Link Between Human and Animal Violence
• Animal Related Grief and Bereavement

Scruffy

Dr. Elizabeth Strand LCSW is the Director of the program and she also coined the term in 2002.  The school offers a concurrent MSSW/VSW (Master of Science in Social Work/Veterinary Social Work) certificate, a post VSW certificate, and specialty-focused continuing education hours.  Having just graduated with my Master's in Social Work from the University of Washington in Tacoma, I would be interested in the post VSW certificate.  This curriculum is pretty straight forward and a student has up to 5 years to complete.  This includes:

Meet Dr. Kate Cutting DVM of Doorstep Vet

Misha not feeling well

Revisit Misha's bio here.
With Misha's declining mobility I had two thoughts; first, it will be very difficult getting her in the car to see the vet and second, she's a biter when she's not feeling well.  I knew she wouldn't be comfortable with being lifted in and out of the car even if I had help.  I had been talking about this to a friend, actually the woman who Whitman likes, and several weeks later she emailed me the name of a traveling vet.  Dr. Kate Cutting of Doorstep Vet.  It was such a relief to know there is still such a service and now I had to find out if she would be the one to help me help Misha over the "rainbow bridge" when it was her time.  (By the way, I thought it would be an interesting post to explore how that phrase came along and how that community has grown to become such an intrinsic part of an animal's death and dying.)

Love and Loss

Adelaide

I'll try not to focus so much on the loss of our pets, but part of social work is how we humans manage the grief and bereavement as a result of the decline and death of a loved one.  This was part of sparked my interest in veterinary social work (VSW) while discussing Misha's palliative care with the traveling veterinarian, who with her permission,  I will introduce her later.  My social work internship includes assisting families to find facilities and other support when their loved ones are deemed appropriate for comfort care and end of life measures.  I've heard from all my pet-loving friends how difficult this is for them as they experience this with their furry family members.  One of these friends, who started out as a client when I owned a pet sitting company 14 years ago, became close friends and confidants especially when discussing anything Yorkie (Yorkshire Terrier).  It was something we had in common when I first met them and when they had their first Yorkie, Bear.  They had hired me as their pet sitter and at the time, I had two Yorkies, Adelaide and Scruffy.  If any readers are familiar with what I call "heart dogs" Adelaide was my heart dog.  Part of me.  She passed when she was 16 years old and a part of me died with her.  Some will understand and others will not.

When it was Bear's time to cross over the rainbow bridge, my friends called me to be with them.  I was overwhelmed with love for this dog, this family, and the fact that they wanted to share this very intimate moment.  We were all overwhelmed with grief at the loss of Bear.

Veterinary Social Work

Misha when she wasn't feeling well.

The first time I heard the term "veterinary social work" was from my advanced practicum instructor during my social work internship at a government facility just this year.  When I meet new people I intend to spend any amount of time with I inevitably bring up my love for dogs.  Well, I love all animals actually but my bond with dogs is quite extraordinary in my opinion.  Those who know me may agree.  I forget the exact conversation but my PI was asking me what I wanted to do for my career and I'm sure the word "dog" was peppered somewhere in the conversation and she said "you know there is something called veterinary social work?"  No.  I did not know that.  Several minutes after I got back to my desk I was searching the internet.