Vet Suicides have Escalated

Originally from: Mike
                        
A BBC report this week tells us that the suicide rate among vets is nearly four times the national average and double that of doctors or dentists. Findings published in the British Veterinary Association's (BVA) journal suggested that lethal injections were the most common method of suicide.

I tend to agree with the BBC correspondent who remarked that if other people had access to the materials and expertise that vets have, there would be a lot more suicides in other occupations too!

STRESS IN EMPLOYEES

My stressed/depressed clients who are employees, are experiencing increasingly levels of disempowerment, de-motivation and weariness in the workplace.

Much of this misery arises from an excess of paperwork, protocols, regulations, political correctness and diminished scope for "Being!" – i.e. expressing who we are and what we can do (personality, initiative, creativity and personal effectiveness). [See my "From Doing to Being" talk on Radio 209 via http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/cheal/message/398]

STRESS IN EMPLOYERS

The stress, paperwork and expense of running any small business in the UK now is quite crushing. Legislation, regulations and insurance requirements have gone completely berserk and are constantly changing.

Last week I went to an updating seminar on UK Employment and Health and Safety regulations – all the company and charitable organization representatives present were absolutely horrified, terrified, overwhelmed and depressed about the impossible demands and huge daily financial and legal risks (thanks to the "Compensation Culture") that they face.

Everyone I spoke to agreed that, quite frankly, there isn't the time, money or expertise to stay the right side of the law. An increasing number of employees are taking their employers to court (gratis – courtesy of "no win-no fee" lawyers) as a way to quit our increasingly stressful workplaces accompanied by a "golden parting gift" of financial compensation or, as quite often happens, a big "out of court settlement" sum – because the employer cannot afford the time or legal fees (no free legal ride for employers!) to pursue an industrial tribunal case, given that legislation and workplace rights are heavily weighted against employers.

FRAGMENTATION OF WORKPLACE RELATIONSHIPS

Sadly, one of the common outcomes of the gross excess of well-intentioned workplace legislation, regulation and "insurance-risk management", is to increase divisiveness between management and staff – a "Them and Us" mentality, in which each is seen as a threat to the "Beingness" of the other. At worst, this breeds suspicion, mistrust, conspiracy theories and strategies to undermine the power-base of the "opposing" team.

SOLUTIONS AT THE PERSONAL LEVEL?

What can we, as individuals, do in this deteriorating situation?

The answer is too big to go into here, but I would like to mention RULE 1!

RULE 1 is "Dismantle any tendency to make matters worse!"

Vicious cycles of stress originate in our "stress personalities"...

STRESS PERSONALITIES

These are the patterns (archetypes or sub-personalities) of thinking, feeling, perceiving, talking and behaving that are triggered by perceived threats, excessive demands, boredom, overload, misery, weariness or disempowerment.

These patterns evolved more than 30,000 years ago, when Neolithic people faced VERY DIFFERENT situations to the modern workplace. When activated in the modern, civilised, politically-correct workplace, they have to be repressed or denied.

Control, Repression, Rationalization and Denial ("I'm a nice person!", "Keep the lid on your feelings!", "Be professional!", "You just have to put up with it!" etc!) result in accumulating, held-in feelings and tensions that make us increasingly unskilful, intolerant, dysfunctional and eventually ill or suicidal!

CLEARING HELD-IN FEELINGS AND IMPULSES

Clearing the held-in stuff – in a way that does not "massage" (wallow in) it – results in us feel lighter, more flexible, more centred (less "scattered", "scatty" or "spaced out"), more energised.

It also puts a smile back on our face and a bounce back in our step!

It also stops those awful leaks of body language that trigger resistance, mistrust, neglect, revenge – or even sabotage! – in others.

If you have an doubts about this, or want to learn some quick and powerful new techniques for doing it, try our "clearing workshop" this weekend in Cambridge: http://www.sunflower-health.com/workshops.htm

or check out this article on "cathartic" (clearing and releasing) techniques: http://www.lovehealth.org/tools/catharsis.htm

Watch those stress levels – This is an epidemic!
Mike
                        

Originally from: Pat Gardiner
                        
Guilt.

Doctors and dentists are, on the whole, respectable. It is unfair to bracket respectable professions with Britain's corrupt veterinarians.

Plus the fact that the report comes from the infamous British Veterinary Association, who can't even reconcile their petty cash tin or control the language of their past Presidents. (I will bet his wife gave him hell!)

I emphasise that the bad language is not mine, but is a BVA past president reported by the Daily Telegraph.

I'm a delicate flower, furnished and burnished on Britain's docksides and know better. Absolute angels alongside Britain's vets.

Let's be frank – the BVA are not just a laughing stock, but a nasty and very dangerous laughing stock....an embarrassment to Britain.

Retirement has its compensations, Mike.

Time to speak out?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/08/31/nvet31.xml

Senior vets voice alarm at bullying allegations
By Robert Uhlig, Farming Correspondent
(Filed: 31/08/2002)

Sixteen former presidents of the British Veterinary Association have voiced concern about trouble at the top of the organisation after allegations of harassment, staff intimidation, bullying and possible financial mismanagement at its London headquarters.

In a letter in the Veterinary Record, the BVA's official publication, the past presidents, whose tenures date from the Fifties to the Nineties, say a lack of transparency over the findings of two independent inquiries into the allegations is tearing the profession apart and damaging its reputation.

One former president said yesterday that the crisis at the BVA's headquarters in Marylebone, London, was "turning us into a laughing stock in the eyes of the Government and the public".

Another past president of the association and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, now retired from practice, said the BVA was in "fucking chaos". He added: "This is creating a loss of public confidence in the BVA and the profession, which is even worse."

The turmoil comes as outsiders are questioning the association's role, particularly after foot and mouth. While members were under severe pressure at the height of the outbreak, their representative body was accused of failing to take a decisive stand on key issues such as vaccination.

Members have been frustrated by the association's failure to sort out conflicting advice on the 20-day standstill rule imposed on livestock farmers after foot and mouth.

After concerns over staff turnover at the headquarters, the BVA Council's Internal Audit Group set up an internal investigation, which prompted an independent inquiry last year at £1,000 a day. The association's executive refused to disclose the contents of the internal report to its council, even in secret. It cited legal advice that it said could lead to the association being brought before an industrial tribunal.

The independent report detailed concerns about the management style of James Baird, the association's chief executive, and Ailsa Edwards, the assistant chief executive.

The Report to the Executive Committee of the British Veterinary Association regarding concerns held by current and past staff regarding their employment lists a catalogue of problems, including "low morale and an atmosphere of distrust, secrecy and fear".

Andrew Scott, president of the association, said lawyers had advised him not to comment on the report's contents.

The independent report was "being actioned". He said: "In view of the necessity for the process to be conducted fairly I am not in the position to say any more."

Mr Baird was unavailable and Mrs Edwards declined to comment.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com