Date: 7th December 2017

Subject: Suicide Rates in the Veterinary Medicine Profession

MLA Citation:

Vogelsang, Jessica. “We Love You to Death: Compassion Fatigue and Burnout Are High in the Veterinary
Profession. It's Time to Stand up and Support One Another.”Veterinary Economics, Apr. 2014, p. 32.
Academic OneFile,
link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A371284252/AONE?u=j043905005&sid=AONE&xid=b9ec18c5.
Accessed June 2017.

staff, dvm360.com. “Outrage over Ownership Dispute, Veterinarian's Death Plays out on Internet.”
dvm360.Com, 16 July 2014,
veterinarynews.dvm360.com/outrage-over-ownership-dispute-veterinarians-death-plays-out-internet.

Larkin, Malinda. “ Study: 1 in 6 Veterinarians Have Considered Suicide.” Study: 1 in 6 Veterinarians

Have Considered Suicide, 18 Mar. 2015, www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/150401d.aspx.

Assessment:

For this research assessment I decided to focus on a topic that many people don’t realize
is a large issue within the veterinary medicine field and that is the suicide rates. I started first by
reading the article by Jessica Vogelsang titled, “We Love You to Death:Compassion Fatigue and
Burnout Are High in the Veterinary Profession. It’s Time to Stand up and Support One Another.”
This article is written by a doctor in the profession already. In this she discusses that the
depression, burnout, and suicide rates aren’t ever talked about and that is the issue. It’s been
proven that the veterinary medicine field has the largest suicide rate out of any profession. Which
may shock the public because what they see is puppies and kittens and happy, success stories. In
her article she expresses that though that fact may surprise the public no actual vets were
shocked by this news. She brings up a colleague of hers, Dr. Shirley Sara Koshi, who actually
went through with those suicidal thought in February of 2014. Dr.Vogelsang conveys the need to
talk about this issue, the need to promote veterinarian support groups. She conveys that
veterinarians always focusing on and working to better support the emotional needs of their
clients but it’s as if no one is there to do the same for them.
After reading this article at the bottom it had a link to read more about Dr.Koshi’s story
and I was very intrigued. I then read the article by the DVM360 staff titled, “Outrage Over
Ownership Dispute, Veterinarians Death Plays Out on the Internet.” This article went into detail
of what events lead up to her death. Dr.Koshi committed suicide at the age of 55, after working
as a veterinarian for more than 30 years. There was a stray cat brought to Dr.Koshi by someone
who found the cat in the park. Dr.Koshi later adopted the cat, but then a few weeks later a
woman named Gwen Jurmark came into her clinic claiming that she was the owner of the cat.
She apparently kept the cat at the park with several others, but without any proof of ownership,
Dr.Koshi wouldn’t release the animal. Gwen Jurmark later filed a lawsuit against Dr.Koshi in
October of 2013, she also organized demonstrations outside of Dr.Koshi’s clinic. This issue was
also taken out on the internet, specifically a website called VetAbuseNetwork.com. On this
website people posted comments that were extremely hurtful and things that I am choosing not to
include.
After reading this I found one more article this one was by Malinda Larkin and was titled,
“Study: 1 in 6 Veterinarians Have Considered Suicide.” In this article it really goes over the
factual evidence and data of the mental health issues encountered by doctors in this career. It
conveyed the results of a survey that was answered by more than 10,000 current veterinarians,
69% were small animal 31% being large animal doctors. It stated that “6.8 percent of males and
10.9 percent of females in the profession have serious psychological distress compared with 3.5
percent and 4.4 percent of U.S. male and female adults. 24.5 percent of males and 36.7 percent
of females in veterinary medicine have experienced depressive episodes since veterinary school,
which is about 1 1/2 times the prevalence in U.S. adults overall throughout their lifetime. 14.4
percent of males and 19.1 percent of females who are veterinarians have considered suicide since
graduation. This is three times the U.S. national mean. 1.1 percent of males and 1.4 percent of
females in the veterinary profession have attempted suicide since veterinary school,” (Larkin).
It’s also expressed that the data from the vets that have attempted suicide is construed due to the
access they have to drugs, suicide attempts by veterinarians are often extremely lethal and
therefore it leave few survivors to answer the survey. This article then goes on to discuss support
groups and, similar to the first article, the need to publicize them.
I was very interested in this topic because it is something that I had talked about with the
technician that mentored me last year as I worked to get my veterinary assistants certification. I
learned a lot from this research. Prior to this I wasn’t aware that there are groups out there that
are anti-veterinarian, that don’t support veterinarians and that choose to share hateful things
about them via the internet. I also wasn’t aware that there are support groups for veterinarians
and I think that speaks to how little they’re publicized. But I am grateful that I’ve completed this
research and that I have become better educated on the subject. I feel that as I prepare to go into
this field it’s important that I know how to take care of myself and how to be a supportive
member of the veterinary medicine community. I understand the signs of depression, compassion
fatigue, and suicide better now. I know that it is ok to ask for help and to reach out to someone
for support, I also am aware of the importance of having people at home and around you that
support you and are there to help you. This is an issue that shouldn’t be suppressed or kept quite.
It’s an issue that we should be accepting of and working to find ways to help, to change those
statistics.