The event, which took place in Manchester in October last year, saw veterinary mental health researchers from across Europe come together to share their insights into a variety of areas of veterinary mental health including moral injury, suicide and suicide prevention, the impact of racism, veterinary nurse mental health, and workplace stressors for autistic veterinary professionals.

There were 77 attendees, including a mix of academic researchers and veterinary professionals.

Talks included an address from Dr Leah Quinlivan on ‘Evidence-based care for people who have self-harmed: risk prediction, psychosocial assessments and aftercare’, presentations of research into the impact of racism on the mental health of veterinary professionals and the impact of moral injury on wellbeing. 

Angharad Belcher, Director for the Advancement of the Professions and of the Mind Matters Initiative gave a talk about the work of MMI, including its newly published 5-year strategy and evaluation documents.

She said: “The fourth Mind Matters Mental Health Research Symposium was a massively inspiring and insightful day.

"The field of veterinary mental health research is still relatively small so it remains of utmost importance that we continue to band together to share our knowledge on this subject, so that we can continue to learn and grow together and put these important learnings into practice.

“For us, it is vital that these new ground-breaking research projects are made available to all who want to learn more about helping to improve the mental health and wellbeing of those working within the veterinary professions.

"There is some truly fantastic work going on which provides us with hope that we can all continue to work together towards a brighter future.

“There is no doubt that there is a long way to go, but improvement starts with education and research so I would urge anybody who is interested in what is being done to help improve and support the mental health of those working within the veterinary professions, and who is keen to help us keep these vital conversations going, to have a look through the report or access videos of the talks.”

https://vetmindmatters.org/resources/videos-from-the-day-mind-matters-initiative-research-symposium-2023

https://vetmindmatters.org/resources/report-mind-matters-initiative-research-symposium-2023