The RCVS Mind Matters Initiative (MMI) has published its findings from a study on mental health and alcohol use in UK veterinary practice.

The project – ‘Alcohol Harm, mental health and opportunities for change in veterinary practice: A cross-sectional study’ – aimed to discover current attitudes, beliefs and alcohol use behaviours of those working in clinical settings in the UK veterinary sector in order to help improve support for those looking to reduce their consumption.

The survey, which began in May last year and was completed by 652 veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses and non-clinical roles such as practice managers, receptionists and veterinary care assistants who currently consumed alcohol, concluded that around 40% of participants were drinking at some level of risk.

At-risk drinking was linked to drinking to cope, for pleasure, and poor mental health, and that interventions to reduce drinking and improve help-seeking for alcohol use should target promotion of adaptive coping techniques, knowledge of low-risk drinking and stigma reduction.

Dr Olivia Cormier, a member of the research team who is also undertaking a PhD at Oxford Brookes University on ‘Understanding UK veterinary professionals’ experiences and attitudes of seeking support for their drinking’, said: “Before now, the most recent data we had in this area dated back to 2009. We’re therefore really pleased to be providing new insights. Now, not only do we understand more about what the current situation looks like surrounding alcohol consumption in the UK veterinary professions, but we can use this knowledge to learn how to best provide support to this group.”

If you would like to participate in Olivia’s research, contact her by email: 19175231@brookes.ac.uk

The full peer-reviewed paper is open access: https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/vetr.70911