Idiopathic Issues

As you might have heard, September is National Suicide Prevention Month. If there’s a profession that needs to pay special attention to suicide prevention, it’s certainly veterinarians! A 2019 study found that suicide risk in male veterinarians is 1.6 times higher than the general population, while the risk in female veterinarians is 2.4 times higher than the general population.¹

And our vet tech friends aren’t immune, either; the same study found that vet techs had an even higher suicide rate than veterinarians.¹ Clearly, this is an issue that all of us need to be aware of, so that we can do our best to protect ourselves and our colleagues.

It’s always been interesting to me how differently individuals in the general public view our profession. I’ve had people tell me, “it is a beautiful profession” to “that’s got to be one of the hardest jobs.” I wonder if maybe veterinary medicine lies somewhere in between or in a combination of these two statements. Personally, I believe our profession can be both incredibly rewarding and profoundly difficult.

We have heard a lot about compassion fatigue in the last couple of years when it comes to the veterinary community. It is a very important topic to address if you work in the veterinary field.