Partnering with Social Workers in Practice

A tearful client arrives at the practice with her elderly cat, Felix. Felix has a 2-year history of poorly regulated diabetes and kidney disease and appears thin and depressed. Team members have worked with the client to manage Felix’s medical needs, as well as to navigate financial constraints and the strains of caregiving. Felix’s health is declining, but the client is reluctant to accept Felix is near death and implores the veterinary team to do anything they can to save him. Some team members express frustration that the client does not recognize the cat’s suffering; other team members avoid the client because she calls repetitively and has an increasing need for emotional support.

You are worried about the cat, the client, and the impact on team members. A veterinary social worker may help.

What is Veterinary Social Work?

Social workers are professionals who work to enhance the well-being of humans, particularly those who are oppressed and vulnerable.¹ They prevent, intervene, and advocate in a variety of settings (eg, schools, public agencies, human hospitals). Although social work is a well-established discipline, the term veterinary social workers to describe those social workers with specialized training in human–animal issues has only been used in the past 10 to 15 years. This small but growing profession can be found in animal welfare organizations, private clinical/consulting practices, and veterinary practices/hospitals. Social workers employed in veterinary practices are often tasked with providing emotional support, brief counseling, and resources to clients. They may also provide team training in core “soft skills” (eg, conflict resolution, end-of-life support), referrals to mental health/wellness resources, and debriefing for veterinarians and team members who need to process cases involving poor patient outcomes, adverse events, and/or challenging client dynamics (see Debriefing). Veterinary social workers are specialists who provide focused support, consultation, and counseling to those on the other end of the leash.

Some veterinary teaching hospitals have started hiring mental health professionals in client service, teaching, and counseling roles to meet the needs of increasingly attached clients and to help strengthen nonmedical skills in veterinary teams.^2,3 Social workers are perhaps the fastest growing group of professionals who provide pet loss support, clinical consultation, euthanasia support, and team debriefing in general, specialty, and academic veterinary practices.^4-7 Many have advanced degrees and/or specialty training in human–animal issues, veterinary–animal welfare settings, or human–animal research and may be employed as part-time practice consultants or full-time practice team members, depending on the resources and goals of the practice.

Veterinary Social Work in Action

Consulting with a veterinary social worker on Felix’s case can help the client plan for the end of Felix’s life in a way that addresses the client’s emotional, financial, and caregiving needs by providing necessary nonmedical information that can help the client come to terms with her cat’s decline and ensure she has support when saying goodbye. A veterinary social worker can help team members locate resources for hospice, euthanasia, and pet loss counseling. They can also debrief the case with team members who have expressed frustration with the client and her decisions. Moral distress is a common and stressful problem in veterinary practice that often benefits from processing and problem-solving with a social worker.⁸ Perhaps most importantly, veterinary social workers can help alleviate time and emotional pressures on the veterinary team while enhancing communication and support for clients.

How to Partner with a Veterinary Social Worker

• Determine the goals for partnership. Be specific about how a veterinary social worker can enhance the practice and augment the skills of team members. Social workers can teach, advise, create resources, and/or provide hands-on service. Prioritize what will enhance care and productivity in the practice and ease the burden on team members.

• Specify the scope of work. Use resources such as Human Support in Veterinary Settings (see Resources), a set of guidelines created by a working group of veterinary-informed mental health providers that advises on screening social service providers for work in veterinary practice.⁹ Identify the client support and employee/team support functions intended for a veterinary social worker in advance to avoid dual relationships (ie, counselor and colleague).

• Consult the literature for best practices. Use available literature that discusses best practices for working with end-of-life issues and pet loss support to determine how to most effectively integrate a social worker into the practice. Knowledge of how, and when, a social worker’s broad range of skills may be used to optimally support struggling veterinary clients is key.

• Locate a veterinary social worker. Consult the local National Association of Social Workers chapter or the Veterinary Social Work program at University of Tennessee (see Resources) for help locating a veterinary social worker in your community.

Conclusion

Although it is still relatively rare to find social workers in veterinary practices, the intensity of human–animal relationships, changing needs of veterinary clients, and growing concerns about veterinary practitioner and team well-being provide ample opportunities for veterinary-informed social workers to work for the benefit of veterinarians, team members, clients, and patient care. Licensed social workers can be added to the team on a part-time or full-time basis or can be retained for case consultation, team education/training, and critical incident/emergency response. As interest in veterinary social work grows and more social workers become trained in human–animal issues, the potential for finding an animal-informed social worker with whom to partner is expanding in communities across the country.