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Speaker 1: I want to talk about veterinarians and the mental health

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Speaker 1: crisis within the profession, the veterinary profession, because a suicide

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Speaker 1: prevention campaign has been launched featuring doctor Sophie Partland, who

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Speaker 1: was a VET who took her life three years ago,

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Speaker 1: and posters with the title lost and a photo of

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Speaker 1: Sophie will be on the back of buses in public

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Speaker 1: areas Metro and Regional Australia to help save the people

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Speaker 1: who save animals. And what is going on with that.

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Speaker 1: Her dad is Gary. I've spoken with Gary before. Part

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Speaker 1: of Sophie's legacy is the campaign that the fundraiser that's

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Speaker 1: going on, the awareness campaign about vets and particularly Sophie Partland. Gary,

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Speaker 1: good morning, thanks for coming on.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Matthew, and good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Why is suicide so prevalent amongst vets?

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Speaker 2: This is a crisis that we're going to be able

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Speaker 2: to address and then we can assure some young people

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Speaker 2: who've got hopes to become a veterinarian that the industry

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Speaker 2: is safe to go into. But what's happening at the

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Speaker 2: moment is that there's been increased pressures on veterinarians. So

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Speaker 2: for example, they may have fifteen minute appointments, they may

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Speaker 2: have to work very long hours, they may have to

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Speaker 2: cover shifts because there's not enough veterinarians.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: I think the other thing that a lot of people

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Speaker 2: don't realize is that it's quite an emotional role that

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Speaker 2: veterinarians have. You don't know how many people they have

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Speaker 2: had to support, if they've had to euthanize their pets,

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Speaker 2: and so, you know, they really can have a roller

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Speaker 2: coaster of the day. So we're finding that things like

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Speaker 2: compassion fatigue is something that really does impact on the

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Speaker 2: mental health. And finally, we've actually heard through surveys that

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Speaker 2: one of the major things that impacts on them mental

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Speaker 2: health is that there's more pride abuse and clients that

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Speaker 2: actually have unrealistic demands on the veterinarians. And this actually

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Speaker 2: and this means that sometimes they lash out. There might

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Speaker 2: be bill shop, they lash out at veterinarians. And so unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: what we're trying to do is to actually say to

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Speaker 2: the general public to be aware of the challenges that

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Speaker 2: a vet and aarian has. It's a great role, great job,

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Speaker 2: but in fact there's a dis roller coaster that they're

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Speaker 2: on at the moment. And we can't watch be able

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Speaker 2: to stop that.

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Speaker 1: Is it the vets themselves who covered on must be

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Speaker 1: What about the nurses and reception and everybody else that

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Speaker 1: works in a clinic.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it's the whole staff, to be honest with you, Matthew.

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Speaker 2: So in some respects, whilst we might talk about veterinarians,

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Speaker 2: and in fact we're trying to change our language a

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Speaker 2: little bit to say that it's actually the veterinarian professionals,

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Speaker 2: because we want to include the nurses because they also

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Speaker 2: have to deal with the public, and the vet technicians

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Speaker 2: another category of role within the vet mary practice, and

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Speaker 2: even the receptionist. So it does impact on everyone who

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Speaker 2: has to have this face to face dealing say, with clients,

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Speaker 2: and we just want to make people aware that words

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Speaker 2: do matter, and it's really important that you be polite

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Speaker 2: and respectful when you're actually dealing with vet marian's, because they.

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Speaker 1: Do with anyone. I was about to say, but especially

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Speaker 1: I suppose.

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Speaker 2: Well absolutely, in fact, you could run this campaign. I

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Speaker 2: suppose across retail, across health, across the lots of others

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Speaker 2: as well. But in fact the reason that we've picked

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Speaker 2: this up is because currently the moment, the suicide rate

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Speaker 2: is one of the highest of any professions, and so

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Speaker 2: we think that's a fairly damning statistic and the lost

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Speaker 2: campaign is really designed so that we can get One

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Speaker 2: of the things we're asking the general public to do

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Speaker 2: is to scan the QR code and sign a petition

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Speaker 2: because we now want to go and talk to politicians,

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Speaker 2: because we think that this industry has been forgotten about

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Speaker 2: by politicians. We think they need to acknowledge the significant

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Speaker 2: contribution that they make to the economic, social and emotional

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Speaker 2: wellbeing of all Australians. Because seventy percent of us now

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Speaker 2: have pets at home, so it does contribute significantly, and

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Speaker 2: yet we think it's been forgotten about.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Sarah Game. I've spoken with her One Nation

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Speaker 1: Upper House MP in State Parliament. She has an inquiry

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Speaker 1: in Parliament waiting on a vote now into vet suicide

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Speaker 1: and I imagine that something you'd be supportive about.

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Speaker 2: We're backing in Sarah's motion to set up a vetery

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Speaker 2: inquiry because that's exactly the thing we would like to see,

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Speaker 2: some examination of the problems that exist in this industry.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we've known about this since two thousand and eight.

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Speaker 2: The statistics we use are nearly eighteen years old, and

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Speaker 2: we think that it's probably got worse since those statistics

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Speaker 2: were actually boarded on. So yeah, we're backing Sarah in

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Speaker 2: that proposal to get an inquiry. We are aware that

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Speaker 2: New South Walest have had an inquiry in the work

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Speaker 2: for shortages at the moment they're going to report the

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Speaker 2: end of this month. So we're starting to get some

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Speaker 2: traction amongst politicians, but there's more to be done.

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Speaker 1: The poster campaign, Gary, So is that launching now? There'd

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Speaker 1: be buses or bus shoulders or whatever billboards with the

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Speaker 1: Imma John and the awenness the campaign.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so we did actually launch it last night.

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Speaker 2: It was on Tennost seven. Part of that launch has

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Speaker 2: been a group of volunteers that have actually gone out

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Speaker 2: to railway stations, high traffic areas, have handed out flyers

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Speaker 2: to people and have asked them to actually sign the petition.

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Speaker 2: I think up to date where nearly it's nearly up

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Speaker 2: to twelve hundred, we actually want to get to ten thousand,

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Speaker 2: so there's some way to go yet. We're also asking

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Speaker 2: another group of volunteers to put these posters up in

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Speaker 2: public places, so supermarkets, banks, cafes and places like that.

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Speaker 2: And then you've just mentioned that we don't have a

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Speaker 2: high profile campaign nationally where we'll have posters up in

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Speaker 2: prominent traffic areas around major cities. We'll also have them

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Speaker 2: on the back of buses and the bush shelters. So

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Speaker 2: this should be a fairly high profile, prominent campaign to

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Speaker 2: raise that awareness and to get that support from the

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Speaker 2: general public.

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Speaker 1: Gary, I hope it goes well. I'm sure it will,

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Speaker 1: and the awareness, I mean, we're helping with that, I

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Speaker 1: suppose right now in bringing it to people's attentions. So

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Speaker 1: it's just astounding that people react in this way and

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Speaker 1: put so much pressure on others. But as you said,

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Speaker 1: it's not just vets. I mean, certainly an issue, big issue,

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Speaker 1: but gee, it happens across the board, and I don't

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Speaker 1: know what's going on in the world really that just

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Speaker 1: makes people so angry. Of late, it seems to be

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Speaker 1: in the last decade or so. Maybe it matches social media,

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Speaker 1: the rise of that, but people are angry that I've

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Speaker 1: ever remembered them being, and just lashing out at others

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Speaker 1: around them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, at first, I want to say thank

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Speaker 2: you for helping us to raise the awareness of this.

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Speaker 2: It's really important to us and it's important to the

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Speaker 2: vetery community who've been right behind the Sophie's Legacy and

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Speaker 2: what we've been trying to do. And yes, I think,

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Speaker 2: as we've already discussed, this could be applied to many

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Speaker 2: industries and it's something that hopefully we can have some

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Speaker 2: impact on this in the general sense.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, appreciate your time, Gary, all the best with it,

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Matthew, Gary Putland.

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Speaker 2: There.

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Speaker 1: So Sophie's Legacy is the campaign and you'll see those

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Speaker 1: posters out and about around the city, no doubt with

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Speaker 1: Sophie's face and lost which is terrible all through just

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Speaker 1: being abused for being a vet. That's not the way

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Speaker 1: things should happen and just an absolute tragedy.