The Wellbeing and Mental Health Oversight Group aims to take a high-level role in overseeing and facilitating awareness, accessibility and uptake of wellbeing and mental health resources amongst all students and staff at the Department of Veterinary Medicine. The group also serves to consult with members of the Department to ensure that the available resources are sufficient in both scope and scale, highlighting best practices but also advocating for review and improvement where necessary. Departmental members are encouraged to approach the Chair of the group (Dan Tucker, awt1000@cam.ac.uk) or any of its members (see below) with comments, ideas or suggestions for ways to optimise awareness, accessibility and usefulness of available support.
The following links to wellbeing and mental health resources, both preventive and responsive, summarise what is currently available to match the range of constituents in the Department.
Student resources
Preclinical student support is primarily available through the colleges’ pastoral systems, as part of the Collegiate University’s network of support for student wellbeing. For clinical veterinary students this is supplemented at Departmental level by the Tutorial Office’s pastoral support team and students' own Veterinary School Clinical Supervisors (VSCS). Cambridge University Veterinary Society’s (CUVS) student wellbeing reps also offer a friendly listening ear and signposting to other support. See the Department’s Student Support and Guidance pages; a helpful set of resources is available on Moodle.
Staff resources The central University has a Wellbeing Strategy, which outlines the pathways to support for staff and this includes our own Departmental Wellbeing Advocate, Julie Ingham - ji217@cam.ac.uk and Alina Sonina - as3605@cam.ac.uk
Additional resources for students and staff in the veterinary profession: The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Mind Matters Initiative offers additional resources for veterinarians and veterinary nurses including veterinary and veterinary nurse students. More immediate support can be readily obtained from VetLife. Finally, other resources are available from NHS providers
Membership of the oversight group, and logistical matters
- The group meets at least once per Term and reports to the Department’s Strategy & Executive Committee
- Unreserved minutes will be published on the departmental intranet and available for everyone in the department to read.
- Membership: The group is currently chaired by Dan Tucker (awt1000@cam.ac.uk), with the following representatives included among the members:
- The Head of Department
- The Departmental and Hospital Staff Wellbeing Advocates (or a representative if not available)
- A representative of the student Pastoral Support Team – ideally, from the tutorial office
- The chair of the Equality and Diversity Committee
- A senior academic in the department with experience of college pastoral support systems (e.g. a current or previous Senior Tutor or Tutor)
- A representative(s) for veterinary hospital clinicians including residents, nurses and interns – connecting with RCVS matters in particular
- Unless already covered by existing membership, a representative with experience of supervision and or mentoring of postgraduate students
- Members include: Julie Ingham, Alina Sonina, Katheryn Ayres, Julian Parkhill, Katie McCallum, Bethany Guy, Sharon Chandler, Nick Bexfield, Mark Holmes, Joanna Hudson and Dan Tucker.
Minutes from Meetings