UT VETERINARY SOCIAL WORK SEES SIGNIFICANT CHANGES OVER THE PAST TWENTY YEARS

By Angela C. Thomas

Veterinary Social Work (VSW) occurs in an area of social work practice that attends to the human needs that arise at the intersection of veterinary medicine and social work practice. Comprised of four areas, Veterinary Social Work includes grief and pet loss, animal-assisted interactions, the link between human and animal violence, and compassion fatigue/conflict management.

As the Founding Director of Veterinary Social Work at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Elizabeth Strand has seen significant changes in the field over the past 20 years. Strand is a licensed clinical social worker, experienced family therapist, Grief Recovery Specialist, and MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction Teacher. “When I first started in the field, I had hoped that there would be more social workers in animal shelters,” she said. “Now 20 years later, I am happy to say that it is happening and that even the American Association of Shelter Veterinarians is giving some attention to the topic. I also envisioned more veterinary social workers would be on the ground in veterinary clinics with veterinarians just like medical social workers are in hospitals, and I am equally happy to say that this also is happening, especially in large specialty practices and some of the industry veterinary practices. My professional mission is to encourage the humane treatment of both people and animals and to care for those professionals who care for animals. A lot of progress has been made over the last two decades in this arena and it is wonderful to have played a part in that.”

Strand fondly recounts her role in creating Veterinary Social Work at UT. “While I was getting my Ph.D., my graduate advisor Catherine Favor, was studying the link between human and animal violence,” she recalls. “I started to read all about the relationship that existed between humans and animals, particularly the way that social work had paid attention to it, so I continued working with her while doing my dissertation on the topic. And then one night it just became very clear to me. I woke up straight out of bed and said, ‘we should have veterinary social work.’ There is school social work, gerontological social work, and medical social work, so why not veterinary social work? A myriad of things fell into place after that, and it seems that I was in the right place at the right time. So, after much hard work, I was able to build the veterinary social work program at UT. And here we are celebrating our 20-year anniversary. The realization of it all still excites me to this day.”

The vision of the veterinary social work program as it was founded in 2002 focused on attending to human needs at the intersection of veterinary and social work practice. This vision expanded with the generous donation from donors to create the All Creatures Great and Small Endowed Clinical Professorship in the Veterinary Social Work program, which Strand holds. “When Barbara and Eric Witzig created the All Creatures Great and Small Endowment in Veterinary Social Work, it did two things,” Strand explained. “It helped to solidify this new sub-specialty as real and worthy, and it put words to the passion in my heart in caring for all creatures, including veterinary professionals who are as great as the creatures they treat. It is a program dedicated to marrying the professions of veterinary medicine and social work. Sometimes in social work, we are around such deep suffering that we become fatigued, and we lose our compassion. In caring for people who care for animals, in witnessing the healing power of animals, we have the opportunity to grow in compassion every day.”

UTCSW Dean Lori Messinger recently gave approval for creating a Center for Veterinary Social Work, elevating the Program to that of a Center. “It is our vision now to attend to the welfare of all species through excellence in global interprofessional practice,” Strand remarked in reference to the Center. “We are becoming an interprofessional space, which will allow us to really master what it means to work across these disciplines that attend to both the human and non-human subjects. There are a lot of wonderful human-animal bond programs between our colleges that are going to be supported through the interprofessional space at the Center for Veterinary Social Work.”

In conjunction with celebrating the 20year anniversary, a new book titled The Comprehensive Guide to Interdisciplinary Veterinary Social Work was recently published, with UTCSW’s Veterinary Social Work Instructor Dr. Pam Linden as coauthor. In recognizing the need for such a book and for the excitement around its publishing, Strand explains, “This book responds to the needs that arise at the intersection of people and animals, focusing on human-animal interaction, human-animal studies, the emotional work of caring for animals, and animal-assisted interventions and therapies. Unlike many works that focus primarily on issues at the micro level, such as animal-assisted interventions, this publication is unique in its focus on issues arising at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels, encompassing human-animal issues and interactions at the level of individuals and family, groups, institutions, and communities. This publication promotes the need for Veterinary Social Work and will help bring it to the forefront among all constituencies involved.” continued celebrations

20 years at UT, the Veterinary Social Work program co-hosted with the International Association of Veterinary Social Work to host the 7th Annual International Veterinary Social Work Summit. The 2022 Summit’s theme was “Veterinary Social Work Around the World” and hosted speakers from Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, and the United States with participants attending from all over the world. The Summit had 245 registrants, making it the largest Summit yet.

Veterinary Social Work is a One Health intervention, which is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes by recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment. The Summit brings together professionals from social work and veterinary medicine to explore the issues that arise where these professions intersect. Although coming from different countries, the issues facing the professions remain similar such as access to veterinary care, best practices, mental health, diversity, and educating future generations of professionals. The UT Veterinary Social Work program was honored to have been a co-host at such an important conference.