Veterinary social worker provides support, 'space to talk' for pet owners

Veterinary hospitals are designed to deliver top-quality care for animals ... but what about the people? 

Pet owners and veterinary professionals make difficult decisions and struggle with problems like grief and caretaker fatigue, and that’s where a veterinary social worker comes in. Veterinary social workers work with the humans involved in veterinary medicine, offering support and resources.

Having a veterinary social worker on the team is just another way the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine's Veterinary Teaching Hospital offers top-quality care.

Why are veterinary social workers helpful?

When dealing with difficult decisions and pet loss, pet owners can feel profound grief and sadness, but they don’t necessarily have the support they need to work through those emotions. A veterinary social worker is a licensed professional who can provide that support. 

As a field, veterinary social work has been around for a little over 20 years; the term was first coined in 2002. Over the past two decades, demand for veterinary social workers has grown, with many universities and clinics adding veterinary social workers to support pet owners, veterinary students, and veterinary professionals.

What does a veterinary social worker do?

For pet owners, veterinary social workers provide support. But what exactly does that entail?

Augusta O’Reilly, veterinary social worker at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, explains: "A lot of the time, it's about giving families the space to talk about stressors. Caregiver burnout — where you are caregiving all the time and you don't have either the support system to help balance the workload or your own mental health is coming into play — we work and talk through those cases. Sometimes, it's resource connecting. Sometimes with families, housing is a concern, or this animal is their emotional support animal or service animal, or sometimes it's referrals to therapists or food pantries. All sorts of things come out of these talks."

She said that in many cases, the term “client advocate” describes her role at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. 

A veterinary social worker can:

• Help communicate a client’s needs;

• Be present for difficult appointments or euthanasia;

• Connect people with mental health, transportation, food access, and other resources;

• Help pet owners in crisis;

• Talk pet owners through the decision-making process;

• Provide counseling.

A veterinary social worker does not:

• Take pets away from their families, or

• Judge pet owners for expressing feelings “the wrong way.”

Meet our veterinary social worker

A lifelong animal lover, Augusta O’Reilly grew up wanting to become a veterinarian. After graduating with her bachelor’s in psychology, she worked as a veterinary assistant until a veterinarian at her practice encouraged her to pursue veterinary social work. She earned her master’s in social work and her certificate in veterinary social work from the University of Tennessee.

Before joining the college, Augusta worked as the director of veterinary social work and a co-facilitator of animal-assisted interventions at the University of Tennessee, a therapist, and a veterinary social worker at a large specialty practice. She currently serves as the board president of the International Association of Veterinary Social Work.

In addition to working with pet owners, Augusta works with residents, interns, and students.

You can learn more about veterinary social work at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.