In this blog for Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month, BVNA Council Member and Officer Hamish Morrin discusses his own experience of stigma around mental health, and some useful lessons to be learned for anyone managing others with mental health conditions.

Find out more about VNAM here, and how you can get involved this year.

I was working in a zoo in a mixed veterinary nurse and keeper role. I was having a bit of a hard time emotionally due to my father being diagnosed with cancer, and I could tell my mental health was slipping a bit. Nothing dramatic, but when you’ve lived with a condition for decades, you can spot the warning signs. From experience I knew the best thing to do was to look for support straight away. That way I’d be acting before the problem became harder to manage, and it wouldn’t dramatically affect my personal or professional life.

I approached my manager, because the only way I could access publicly funded treatment was to attend appointments during the workday, which required manager permission. All I wanted was to be able to attend one appointment a week. I reassured my manager that things were not serious, that I was acting to ensure that I would be able to continue work as normal.

The response was not what I expected. I was taken off working with any dangerous animals, and my access to animal medications was restricted. Essentially, I was being treated as a danger to myself and others. Nothing could have been further from the truth; the biggest risk was that I would start taking sick days due to depression. But I really felt that, as soon as I had disclosed my condition, I wasn’t trusted to be honest or able to manage myself. It was deeply wounding. I felt I’d done the right thing by disclosing a potential challenge to my health and seeking preventative care; stopping the problem before it was even really a problem.

What happened? Well, I went to my appointments, they helped me avoid getting worse, and I never had any kind of crisis. I also lost all respect for my managers, because they clearly didn’t trust me or have any understanding of mental health. This is the message of this blog: please listen to people. Many people with mental health conditions have been living with them for years. They can tell you what is happening and what kind of support they need. They can tell you the actual risks and problems. Listening and supporting them early can help you avoid serious problems later on; either dealing with absences due to untreated mental health, or people leaving due to not feeling supported.

There are cases where it might be suitable to put in restrictions on someone’s access to dangerous drugs, don’t get me wrong. But don’t jump straight to that conclusion. Don’t automatically distrust someone with a mental health condition. It’s no different to someone who might have a bad back; they get to know how to manage that condition. We’re the same. All you have to do is listen.

Hamish Morrin, BVNA Council Member and Officer