Flourishing Phoenix Veterinary Consultants

I am humbled to receive the 2025 Blue Buffalo Together for Pets Award. BLUE is supporting and involved in a number of state and national effort to support veterinary professionals and I want to take a moment to thank them. I am equally humbled to be recognized not only with this distinguished and amazing group of friends and veterinarians receiving this award this year--Dr. Jane Brunt, Stephanie Jones, DVM and Dr. Michael Blackwell), but also the incredible veterinarians who have been awarded this honor previously for their work--Dr. Cherice Roth, Niccole Bruno, DVM, Dr Robin Downing, Jon Geller, DVM, DABVP emeritus, MPH, Dr. Kwane Stewart, Melanie Goble, Addie Reinhard, DVM, MS. I feel like the Temu version of the work these veterinarians have done for the profession.? In all seriousness, if it weren’t for caring veterinary professionals like them and you, I wouldn’t be here today. As an early career veterinarian, I experienced serious psychological distress, lacked effective tools and had a plan to end my life. Thank goodness my co-workers recognized the signs and knew the resources available to get me help. While in treatment, I was given tools to not only help me get better and heal, but to also enrich and elevate—both at work and in life. Those lessons and experiences offered led to a generative question for the future of veterinary medicine shared by quite a few of us in vet med: What if veterinary professionals leave in a BETTER psychological condition than when they arrived? What if every one of them left work feeling fulfilled, energized and uplifted? To do that, we need to start by preventing psychological harm, accommodating neurodiversity, treating illness AND promoting flourishing. I am grateful to play a small part toward that goal with my work with Flourishing Phoenix Veterinary Consultants, the Florida Veterinary Medical Association's Inspire by FVMA program, and having the opportunity to serve a number of different organizations and projects working toward this goal. Shout out to VIN Foundation, MentorVet, Boehringer Ingelheim, Zoetis, Veterinary Visionaries and many other groups doing the impactful work to uplift the profession. Dr Bob Smith, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, said he did that service work for 4 reasons. As a person in long-term recovery and a veterinarian, his beliefs resonate strongly and with a few changes are offered here through the lens of vet med: 1.???Sense of duty to the profession. 2.???It is a pleasure. 3.???Because in so doing I am paying gratitude to the people who took time to pass it on to me. 4.???Because every time I do it, I take out a little more insurance for myself against falling back into the space that brought me to this journey at the start. Thank you to all of you light bringers out there, and to Blue Buffalo, Alex Miller, my wife Dr. Carla Channell…and of course, my mom??? #veterinarywellbeing #positivepsychology #psychologicalsafety #wedorecover #workplacewellbeing