The Vets in Mind Alliance has today announced its Board of Trustees and strategic focus. Its Board is spread over a wide geography and demography and across the breadth of different roles in the veterinary community. In addition, the Board is strengthened by a Clinical Psychologist with significant experience in supporting professionals in both human and veterinary healthcare.
Founding Board Members
Dr Mark Johnston MA VetMB PhD MRCVS founded The Vets in Mind Alliance first developed a strong interest in mental health of the veterinary community after experiencing burnout in his early clinical career at Rossdale and Partners where he was primarily focused on the anaesthesia and critical care of inpatients and prior to that the suicide of his father when he was a child. He is the CEO of Vetstream and wanted to use his experience in digital publishing to help the veterinary community be provided with practical and meaningful tools to help identify when team members are coming off the rails so that they can be helped to identify developing issues and start taking steps to getting back on track.
Dr Donna Gurney PsychD HCPC – Clin. Psych.is the Founder of Tutum Psychology and has over 15 years of experience of working in mental health, both in and outside the NHS. She specialises in adolescent and working age adult mental health. Prior to setting up her private practice, she worked as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in an inpatient CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service). Her earlier roles include working in the NHS as a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist for Early Intervention Service for Psychosis, and as a Clinical Psychologist in the Non-Psychosis Pathway (specialist service for those with enduring & severe mental health difficulties such as personality disorders, mood & anxiety disorders, & trauma & stress-related disorders.
Prior to becoming a clinician, she was working as an academic at the University of Birmingham for a number of years. Her academic background has taught her the value of evidence-based practice in her clinical work. Her approach to therapy is collaborative, person-centred, and integrative which means that her clinical work is based on the patient’s unique needs as an individual, a mutual therapeutic relationship, and scientific evidence that supports efficacy of treatment. She is an HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) registered Clinical Psychologist. She is also a BPS (British Psychological Society) registered Chartered Clinical Psychologist
Outside her private practice, she is passionate about workplace wellbeing and is a regular contributor to “The Veterinary Edge” magazine.
Dr. Ivan Zak, DVM, MBA, CEO at Galaxy Vets is a veterinarian, an entrepreneur and a passionate advocate for the well-being of veterinary professionals. After 12 years in critical care and a severe case of burnout, Ivan pivoted to creating products that improve the workflows and experience of veterinary teams. He founded SmartFlow, a workflow optimization system, and Veterinary Integration Solutions, an executive consulting firm offering proprietary operating platform for enterprise management and burnout prevention. Pursuing his goal to make a sizable impact on the veterinary industry, Dr. Zak founded Galaxy Vets, a veterinary healthcare system co-owned by its employees and with burnout prevention as a strategic priority. Along the way, Ivan obtained an MBA degree in International Healthcare Management with a thesis, “Implementation of Lean Thinking to Improve the Employee Experience.”
Dr Naveesha Kaur Shergill was the inaugural chair of the International Veterinary Students’ Association Wellness Committee until recently and recently graduated Malaysia. She developed a number of innovative wellbeing programmes and activities for the IVSA Wellness Committee and has a strong network of students and new graduates across the globe who are keen to enable the profession to tackle its wellbeing challenges.
Steve Kirton is the President of Circa Healthcare, an animal-health focused marketing and communications agency based in Philadelphia, USA. Steve has spent over 20 years helping animal health companies and organizations connect with veterinarians, pet owners and livestock producers for the betterment of animals’ and peoples’ lives. and part of the senior management team of the Veterinary Dialogue Trainer (VDT) simulation, a virtual reality tool empowering veterinary professionals to practise conversations between a veterinary professional and client, including those identified as being most challenging.
Vicky Robinson started her career as a registered veterinary nurse in emergency and critical care before becoming an owner of a veterinary practice and director and Practice Development Coach at VetDynamics. Vicky also is also a counselling and psychotherapy practitioner and was a trustee of Vetlife for several years. Her key aspiration is to help independent vets with their businesses and improve life experiences.
Key strategic direction
The Vets in Mind Website has two main objectives: firstly to help clinical team members triage themselves , colleagues friends or family members via well validated mental health tools in anxiety, depression, burn out, depression and suicidal thoughts and then signposts people to where they can get immediate help in the case of a major crisis and for others who are becoming aware of mental ill health in themselves or others but are not sure how to find out more in practical and confidential ways.
The Vets in Mind website does not seek to replace existing excellent resources but instead aims to give access to anyone in the veterinary community via their smartphone and be free to use. It is designed to complement and to sit alongside many other initiatives and existing programmes already in place run by various associations, organizations, charities and support groups around the world for all members of the veterinary market whether they are in practice, academia or companies and charities in the veterinary market.
A key aim of Vets in Mind is to reduce the stigma surrounding metal health through stories/information etc. A key feature of the app is that no identifiers are required to use the app or website, ensuring anonymity and enabling users can look up information without any perceived or real risk of people being identified.
Note to Editors
The Vets in Mind Alliance was formed as a company limited by Guarantee in August 2019
For further information please contact
Mark Johnston
Vets in Mind – Founder
Email: getintouch@vets-in-mind.org
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 895818
Three Hills Farm, Bartlow, Cambridge, CB21 4EN, UK.