This online course is part of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Mind Matters Initiative and is open to all members of the veterinary practice team.

The Mind Matters Initiative recognises that the Covid-19 outbreak poses a great challenge to our mental health and wellbeing. Factors such as the risk to our physical health, government guidance around self-isolation, and the sudden and marked impact on our work, home and social lives, can leave us all particularly susceptible to feelings of stress, worry and anxiety.

Resilience is one of the most powerful tools we have in our personal wellbeing ‘toolkit’. It helps us to respond to the pressures of our everyday lives and to ‘bounce back’ when things get tough. Resilience is a particularly protective factor in the veterinary profession, where we know that veterinary professionals display higher than average rates of depression and anxiety, and that sadly vets are at an increased risk of suicide.

• Do you know how resilient you are, and how your resilience levels impact on you in the workplace?

• Have you ever thought about what’s in your personal resilience toolkit, and what could you add to it?

• Do you know how to build upon your resilience levels, to protect yourself from symptoms of stress and mental ill-heath?

Emotional resilience is mainly a learned behaviour, the chances are very high you initially reflected the resilience of your parents or early care givers. However, our level of resilience is not static, and we can take steps to increase our resilience and reduce our risk of developing mental health issues including clinical depression.

On 29 January we will be holding a half day of training via Zoom.

Timings:

10:00am - Course starts

1:00pm – Course finishes

There will be a short break in the middle of the course.

Cost:

Thanks to Mind Matters funding, the course has been subsidised and is available at £15 per person with 30 places available.

Please note payment must be made via Eventbrite at the time of booking, and we are unable to issue invoices.

CPD:

Don’t forget, you can count this towards your CPD!

We look forward to seeing you there.

The Mind Matters Team

Information about course:

The programme content

This programme is designed to equip participants with an understanding of the role emotional resilience plays in protecting our mental health. People with high resilience are less likely to develop clinical depression when faced with adversity in their life – and clinical depression is a major link to the risk of suicide.

Course points:

• What is emotional or psychological resilience?
• How emotional resilience develops.
• Why it is not static – you can only say someone is currently high resilient or someone is currently low resilient .
• Protective factors and risk factors.
• Risk factors in the Veterinary profession.
• Connection between resilience and clinical depression
• Response to adversity – Two roads, resilience or clinical depression?
• Which road will you go down: predicting who is at risk of developing clinical depression?

Life skills:

1. Become a better listener
2. Use strategy to solve problems
3. Manage your emotions
4. Build personal social capital
5. How to access help for yourself, colleague, friend or family member.

FAQs

Questions?

If you have any questions about the course please email Lisa Quigley, Mind Matters Manager l.quigley@rcvs.org.uk

Can you reserve me a place and I book at a later date?

Sorry, we are unable to reserve places, tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Can I book on Eventbrite and pay via invoice?

Unfortunately we are unable to raise invoices for the associated costs. Payment must be made via Eventbrite at the time of booking.

What is the refund policy?

If you are unable to attend the course please email the RCVS Events Team on events@rcvs.org.uk . If you do this by 22 January, we will refund 50% of the ticket cost, minus the Eventbrite service fee.

How can I access the course?

You will be emailed joining instructions a few days before the course.