See the Full Issue
September 2023
Inside AAHA September 2023
Margot Vahrenwald DVM, AAHA’s president for 2022–2023, shares an anecdote that illustrates the toll that poor mental health can take on a team, and how a caring attitude can unite the team. The Community shares memories of accreditation and its importance, 90 years after AAHA began.
View from the Board
Take Time to Care
There is no health without mental health.
—David Satcher, former United States Surgeon General
Near the end of May was one of those days that reminded me that we all need to be connected and supportive. As Robin Williams is oft quoted as saying: “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.”
My outpatient leadership team asked that I help them with a difficult conversation with a newer hire who started with us in late April. For their first weeks, they were on fire, and then a switch came with illness, tardiness, and a change in their focus. The conversation was difficult not because they were a toxic personality or a bad fit for our culture but because something had changed mentally for this person from their start to now.
This is a team member who had a smile as big as the sun and was a perpetual motion machine, always helping their colleagues and keeping busy. But now they had shifted to a quiet, withdrawn demeanor. So, we gently talked to them and reviewed those changes and lapses with a focus on our concern for them. We noted their downward spiral and how it was being perceived by teammates and trainers as loss of interest and a disregard for our training process. Finally, they shared what they felt comfortable sharing about their situation.
This team member was struggling with not only their own physical health concerns from chronic disease but mentally with the stresses of a seriously ill mother, a father newly entering hospice, and being the “new kid” at work—everything clustering together. Like many of us, they were simply overwhelmed. Additionally, that common vet med personality of someone who does more to take care of others than themselves had kicked in. And, lastly, life experience has taught them that they need to do it all and that no one needed to know their personal business.
As we got toward the end of the conversation, this team member also shared that in prior veterinary assistant jobs—and even in prior workplaces that were not in vet med—they never had colleagues acknowledge them and their mental health in this way.
We as a leadership team continued to have a really open conversation about support, available resources in our area, and a plan for accommodations that might help, such as an extra break time for counseling or phone calls regarding the parents, a schedule change, and how we could flex with them. We simply showed our caring about this individual. When all was said and done, we still have an employee who is struggling with things that we cannot shoulder for them, but they are smiling again because of the knowledge of communication, connection, and collaboration at a time of struggle made them feel heard and supported.
While this team member does not have a mental illness, their mental health was suffering, and if left unacknowledged, it could have easily carried them into depression and anxiety.
This could be any of us, which is why the mental health of our colleagues needs to be and remain a priority—a pulse to be checked on, a door to remain open so everyone in our practices is acknowledged and supported. It costs us nothing to listen and be kind, but it can make such a difference.
Margot Vahrenwald DVM, is AAHA’s president for 2022–2023. She owns Park Hill Veterinary Medical Center, a six-doctor small animal practice in northeast Denver. |
This month in AAHA’s Publicity Toolbox . . .
Here are the downloadable social media images available for AAHA-accredited members at aaha.org/publicity this month:
- Animal Pain Awareness Month
- Happy Healthy Cat Month
- National Service Dog Month
- National Disaster Preparedness Month
- September 24–30: Deaf Dog Awareness Week
- September 28: World Rabies Day
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2023 marks the ninetieth year of AAHA, and members are sharing some of the biggest ways AAHA has contributed to their careers. Check out some of their moving testimonials and share yours at community.aaha.org. |
A: I attended my first AAHA meeting in 1971, and it changed my life. Our animal clinic became AAHA accredited in 1974 and grew from a 1 doctor practice with 1 employee to 6 doctors and almost 30 employees. I then became inspired to join AAHA’s team of volunteers in 1980. I am a proud supporter of AAHA and all it has meant to companion animal veterinary practices throughout its important history.
A: The year I graduated from vet school, 1998, I won the AAHA medical and surgery student award. I honestly had no idea what AAHA was. They gave me a free conference ticket, and it was my first vet conference. It became my guiding light. Twenty-five years later, I have three accredited hospitals and they are still my guiding light! Thank you AAHA!
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