With a new project, a team is looking to bring to light the mental struggles common in one profession.
“Once I decided to be a veterinarian, this is all I ever wanted to do,” said Dr. Noel Lucas of Blue Oasis Pet Hospital in Mt. Juliet.
Dr. Lucas will tell you it takes an uncommon compassion to do this kind of work, an uncommon devotion to helping animals.
“When we can’t fulfill that mission, it ends up causing us to have a lot of maybe mental health issues,” she said.
“We had pets that are aging, and we were spending so much time with our vet,” said Marie Barnas.
Marie and Frank Barnas teach at Middle Tennessee State University and are documentary filmmakers. It was in conversations with Cacey Frazier in their vet’s office, that their eyes were opened to the realities veterinarians face.
“I’m a practice manager at Brogli Lane Weaver and Alexander Hospital in Murfreesboro,” Cacey said. “We take on things that end up being very emotionally taxing for ourselves.”
“The AVMA and the CDC did a study back in 2019, and they found that male veterinarians had double the risk of suicide than the general public and females had triple,” said Marie.