Specialties Social Work

Veterinary Social Work

We know pets are family! While our healthcare teams provide medical care for each pet who walks through our hospital doors, our Veterinary Social Work team supports the people and families who love them. Social work within the veterinary hospital setting focuses on offering emotional and practical support during stressful, often urgent, and overwhelming situations.

Why Veterinary Social Work?

Having a sick or injured family member is stressful. We recognize that families may be navigating additional external stressors that can be intensified during a medical emergency with a beloved pet. Our Veterinary Social Work team offers compassionate, short-term support during crises, difficult diagnoses, end-of-life decision-making, grief, and more.

What to Expect from Veterinary Social Work

Veterinary Social Work support is a complimentary service for families seeking care for their pets at MedVet/WestVet. Support can be initiated by MedVet/WestVet clients, doctors, or referral partners (Central Ohio ONLY). Much of our support is provided in-person, in the exam room at the time of care; however, support can also be accessed after families have left MedVet. Support may include helping families process complex emotions, navigate care decisions, communicate effectively with the medical team, and connect with helpful community resources, including longer-term grief counseling when appropriate. Our team meets each family where they are without judgement.

These services are confidential, supportive, and centered on a holistic approach to navigating medical care for each pet and their family.

Services Offered

  • Short-term crisis intervention
  • Quality-of-life and end-of-life decision making support
  • Grief and anticipatory grief support
  • Care plan decision-making and support
  • Complex discharge support
  • Caregiver fatigue support for families with chronically ill pets
  • Connection to community resources

What Makes Us Different

Our Veterinary Social Workers have expertise in the human-animal bond and can help provide clarity, insight, and comfort during care. In addition to state licensure and master’s level education in Social Work, all our Veterinary Social Workers complete The University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s post-graduate certificate in Veterinary Social Work. Our dedicated hospital model means that our Social Work team can often provide in-the-moment support when families need it most. Our program works with over 20 universities around the country to provide internships in Veterinary Social Work for social work students. This allows us to expand our reach and provide scaled support to our evening and weekend services. As a team, we provide support to nearly 500 pet families per month.

Our Veterinary Social Work program is currently offered at our Columbus, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Dallas hospitals.

We offer internships in Veterinary Social Work at these locations as well.

Not all services are available in every hospital. Contact your local MedVet for services at that location.