Shine Awards: How a little girl sparked an idea that’s transforming stressed vets’ lives

An innocent statement from Sarah Golding’s young daughter set her on a mission to help rural vets.

Sarah Golding, from Inverell in northern NSW, is nominated for a Shine Award for her work helping young vets cope with the pressures of the job. Picture: Emma Pendergast

An innocent statement from her young daughter sparked Sarah Golding’s mission to tackle the burnout and mental health problem facing veterinarians.

“She said to me, ‘Mummy, one day I might like to be a vet like you’,” Ms Golding said.

“I thought, ‘God, I hope not’.

“I caught myself in that ­moment. I love the job and started to think more about that – and then this initiative was born from that little thing that happened at home as a mum.”

The initiative Ms Golding spoke of is a year-long online course for graduate vets that has been designed to help them deal with the challenges that aren’t taught during a five-year university degree.

Stress, burnout and mental health issues have made becoming a vet a difficult career choice, and the suicide rate among practitioners is four times higher than the general population.

“I think we need to be teaching actual skills about how to prevent that,” Ms Golding said.

“I truly believe resilience is a learned skill and it’s something I’m passionate about teaching.”

Ms Golding, who lives in Inverell in northern NSW, designed the course to help improve resilience and equip vets, early in their careers, with some skills and techniques to deal with the challenges.

“Looking back at my own start it was a really sink or swim kind of beginning to a career,” she said.

“That is quite classic for veterinary medicine. We’re taught a lot of physical skills and theory but nobody taught me simple things about how to deal with stress, fear and anxiety.”

Australia is facing a critical shortage of veterinarians and the problem is most acute in regional areas. The onerous study requirements, long hours and surge in pet ownership have all contributed to the problem, which was investigated last year by a NSW parliamentary inquiry.

It has led to calls from the Australian Veterinary Association for the government to bring in study fee forgiveness for new graduate veterinarians who choose to work rurally.

Rural clinics classed as veterinary hospitals are also required to be on-call 24 hours a day, increasing the workload for smaller practices that are already understaffed.

“A lot of vets are running on fear and, over time, that leads to cortisol issues and physiological burnout, beyond being tired,” Ms Golding said.

The stress of the job can often be exacerbated by clients who are unaware of the workload.

“We go from doing a euthanasia in one consult room into another where you’re doing a diagnostic work-up and that client wants everything from you,” Ms Golding said. “Meanwhile, you’ve got patients out the back awaiting surgery and patients already in hospital recovering.”

Early trials of Ms Golding’s graduate mentorship program have yielded promising results and, with the help of an Agri­Futures bursary, the Vet Mind Mentor program is ready to roll out across the country.

For her work to support for rural vets, Ms Golding has been nominated for a Shine Award.

Now in their eighth year, the awards – run by rural masthead The Weekly Times and supported by Harvey Norman – recognise the achievements and contributions of women across rural and regional Australia.