{"id":5701,"date":"2016-10-28T12:39:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T01:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/?p=5701"},"modified":"2019-02-06T00:31:42","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T13:31:42","slug":"vets-mental-health-crisis-nembutal-in-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/vets-mental-health-crisis-nembutal-in-the-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Vets\u2019 mental health crisis: Nembutal in the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Photo: Canberra vet Alison Taylor, with Charlie the lagotto, says vets need a supportive environment. Picture: Ray Strange<\/p>\n

The scourge of suicide is striking the veterinarian community more than any other industry and the official body representing vets is backing a clampdown on how the most commonly used death drug is managed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Studies suggest vets \u00adcommit suicide at four times the rate of the general population, commonly with the same drug they use to \u00adeuthanise animals, pentobarbital.<\/p>\n

The Australian Veterinary Assoc\u00adiation is calling for laws that demand the drug be kept more \u00adsecurely in surgeries and vehicles, as there is no regulation on its storage at clinics. But it has rebuffed suggestions that the drug, also known as Nembutal, should be reclassified as a level eight controlled drug by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.<\/p>\n

The government body is considering changing the classification of the drug to the same level as morphine, but the AVA said in its submission that this would do little to prevent suicide while making the role of animal welfare harder.<\/p>\n

AVA policy manager Debbie Neutze said the change in classification would be too onerous, \u00adrequiring an explanation for how every milligram of the drug was used and requiring pet owners\u2019 names and addresses.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuthanasia in a veterinary practice is often undertaken in emergency situations, often involv\u00ading multiple patients, often out in the field, often with no actual\u00ad owner,\u2019\u2019 Ms Neutze said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, vets use it to euthanase wildlife after bushfires.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it is a drug used in everyday vet practice, so the recording of every little milligram would be difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that the record-keeping requirements of the schedule eight classification were designed to tackle the ongoing abuse of drugs, which is not the case with pentobarbital users.<\/p>\n

Ms Neutze noted there were various reasons for poor mental health in the industry, including a familiarity with euthanasia, the distress of putting down animals and high-pressure work. Vets are also surprisingly modestly paid, with an average wage of $79,000, lower than the national average.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The AVA was rolling out var\u00adious programs to address the problem, including a mentoring program for new vets, while teaching first aid in mental health.<\/p>\n

A trustee of the AVA Benevolent Fund, Brian McErlean, said there was anecdotal evidence that the programs were working, with only one reported suicide in the profession in the past year.<\/p>\n

Before this, over an 18-month period the AVA recorded six suicides, which equates to about 40 suicides per 100,000 people \u2014 four times the national average.<\/p>\n

Canberra vet Alison Taylor is a part owner of five practices in the city and believes the industry has come a long way in dealing with the mental health of its workers.<\/p>\n

She was a mentor to graduate vets and students and has taken the AVA\u2019s mental health first-aid course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing that leads to vets that don\u2019t cope so well is when they are in an environment where that is not supported or recog\u00adnised, where they don\u2019t have enough support and they feel isol\u00adated,\u201d Ms Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a high-pressure job and if there are not people looking out for them then that leads younger people to feel more vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyondblue chairman Jeff Kennett said the suicide rate of vets was \u201ca great concern\u201d, adding that the issue was raised at the charity\u2019s board meeting last week.<\/p>\n

Source: Vets\u2019 mental health crisis: Nembutal in the spotlight<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo: Canberra vet Alison Taylor, with Charlie the lagotto, says vets need a supportive environment. Picture: Ray Strange The scourge of suicide is striking the veterinarian community more than any other industry and the official body representing vets is backing a clampdown on how the most commonly used death drug is managed. Studies suggest vets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2000],"tags":[142,852,446],"class_list":["post-5701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-dr-m","tag-mental-health","tag-veterinary-profession"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5701"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5706,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5701\/revisions\/5706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}