Jo Dyer says there is more work to be done in addressing mental health issues
"My main concern is the mental and emotional health of vets," says Jo Dyer, a candidate in the RCVS Council elections.
Discussing her hopes should she be elected to council, the Devon-based vet said: "We need to get to grips with the old-fashioned ‘blame culture’ lingering at all levels of the profession; and we need to ensure that both the public and the profession have realistic expectations."
Last year, Jo launched the petition calling for mandatory home visits to be removed from the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct - a petition which received over 2,800 signatures and resulted in changes in the code's guidance.
Her campaign was prompted by the Chikosi disciplinary case which prompted significant concern regarding out of hours visits among the veterinary profession.
"I feel proud of my involvement in starting the petition and in presenting it to RCVS standards committee, many of whom seemed unaware that vets were putting themselves at risk due to fear of losing their livelihoods," Jo says.
During the course of her campaign, she says she came across a lot of "distressed" vets. "Finding out that we have four times the suicide rate of the general public and twice that of doctors and dentists was a very sobering moment."
While she praises the work of Vetlife and the Veterinary Benevolent Fund, Jo feels prevention is better than cure and more should be done to reduce the number of people in the profession needing to contact Vetlife or the Samaritans.
"I think we need to reduce vets’ natural tendency to set themselves unrealistic expectations," she explains. "We need to keep standards high but not unachievable, and since RCVS is responsible for ‘setting, upholding and advancing the educational, ethical and clinical standards of veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses’ then that is the place to start."
Last year, the college also came under fire for its decision to remove post-nominals from the register of veterinary surgeons. "This had been the subject of consultation previously but that consultation had obviously not been noticed by the vast majority of the profession," Jo says, adding that communication is the key to avoiding these kinds of conflicts in future.
If elected to the RCVS Council, she hopes to be helpful in improving lines of communication between the college and vets "in as many ways as possible". Jo invites members of the profession to get in touch on any areas of concern and pledges to "represent the profession" if she is elected.
To read our full interview with Jo, visit vetcommunity.com. Log in or sign up for a free account to discuss the elections in the VetCommunity chatter zone.
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