Welcome to the launch of the VIN Foundation’s Veterinary Pulse podcast.
Join us as we talk with veterinary colleagues about critical topics from student debt to mental health. And share stories. stories connect us… as humans, as animals, as a veterinary community.
This episode we’re talking with Dr. Bree Montana, our Vets4Vets® team leader. Dr. Montana is a veterinary practice owner and on the front lines supporting veterinarians as they reach out for confidential peer-to-peer support. We discuss how Vets4Vets® can help colleagues and offer tips and suggestions in the age of COVID-19.
You may learn more about Vets4Vets® on the VIN Foundation website: https://VINFoundation.org/Vets4Vets or reach out at Vets4Vets@vinfoundation.org.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro
Jordan Benshea: Welcome to the Veterinary Pulse podcast. My name is Jordan Benshea. I’m the Executive Director of the VIN Foundation. Veterinary Pulse is the heartbeat of the profession. Join us as we talk with veterinary colleagues about critical topics, from student debt to mental health, and share stories. Stories connect us as humans, as animals, as a veterinary community. This podcast is made possible through individual donors like yourself, and our technology partnership with VIN, the Veterinary Information Network. Thank you for being here. A couple of show notes.
Adapting to Uncertain Times
Jordan Benshea: This isn’t how we planned to launch the Veterinary Pulse podcast. In the last few weeks things have become a bit abnormal, and we thought it best to focus our energy on getting helpful information out to our colleagues instead of fixating on a perfect launch. We ask you to bear with us as we pivot to adapt and adjust with hopes we are providing you with information you find helpful. Thanks for being patient with us, and as always, we welcome feedback. Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us. This is Jordan Benshea and wow, have we had some news!
Meet Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP
Jordan Benshea: The last couple of weeks our world has just sort of been mind blown a little bit, and in the midst of everything that’s going on, I thought we would take a chance and speak with Dr. Bree Montana, who runs the VIN Foundation’s Vets4Vets program. Welcome Bree, thanks so much for being here.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: Oh, thanks for having me, Jordan, I’m happy to be here.
Jordan Benshea: It seems like the best thing that we can do right now is offer people some help and guidance and just some calming possibility of a resource here in the midst of lots of craziness as we start to find our way in this new path.
The Birth of Vets4Vets
Jordan Benshea: Bree, would you mind taking a few minutes and to help us understand what Vets4Vets is, how it started, and how the program works?
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: Yeah, I’d love to. Back in 2009 – 2010, the economy was really in the dumpster. I was practicing medicine, and I’m in a somewhat remote area. We are in a tourist town. I live in North Lake Tahoe, so we’re very dependent upon the local economy and dependent on people being able to travel. My clients are people with Lear jets, and people that service them, and people to clean those guys’ houses, so my practice is pretty stratified, but really sensitive to changes in the economy. At that time, the economy was pretty terrible, and I was having a really hard time with my practice. I had two businesses at the time, and I was really struggling. I had the feeling that I was the only person that was struggling. A group of us got together. Paul Pion invited a bunch of VIN members up to Davis and we all got together and talked about the situation. It became clear to me that there were so many of us in the same boat, but we weren’t connecting with each other on that level. We were all so ashamed of our struggles and wanting to show everybody our highlight reels and not really showing them what was going on in our home movies. We talked about, gosh, wouldn’t it be nice if we had the ability to reach out to a colleague and a colleague could talk to us one on one like a normal human being, and we could recognize how similar we all are and how similar all of our struggles are, and thereby become stronger. I do believe we’re stronger together, so at that time, we started Vets4Vets, and it just started with a phone number. Folks would call in and we would talk. From there, we have built out so many programs. I like to say, if you have a problem, I’ll make a program.
Support Programs and Services
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: We created Vets in Recovery for veterinarians recovering from any form of addiction. We started Cancer Vets for veterinarians who have been diagnosed with cancer. We have veterinarians who have been through bankruptcy and come out the other side and found their sunshine there. We’ve got so many different ways of helping people. We have a mentor match. I think the most meaningful thing for me, is my ability to connect one on one with our colleagues. Even if I’m talking to a colleague who is going through a super hard time, it just becomes a strengthening moment for both of us, because we both recognize that we’re here for each other and that’s the beauty of Vets4Vets. It’s veterinarians helping veterinarians and making our profession as great as it can be.
Jordan Benshea: Yes, and it’s so wonderful what you do on a day to day basis and the comfort that you’re able to give people. Can you help people understand the type of tangible support that you provide?
How to Reach Out for Help
Jordan Benshea: Say somebody is interested in reaching out to Vets4Vets, it can be a very vulnerable or scary experience for some. How does that process work?
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: It’s so easy. They can email me directly, Vets4Vets at VIN foundation.org. It’s Vets4Vets@VINFoundation.org. I would say our response rate is pretty fast. We usually get a response back by email within 24 hours. They can also call directly. They can call between nine and five pacific time every single day of the year at 530-794-8094, and somebody will answer the phone. Occasionally, it’ll go to a voicemail, and we’ll have to call back, very, very rarely. I think we almost always are able to jump right on that phone call, if we’re not on another phone call at the same time.
Jordan Benshea: That’s wonderful, being able to have that. We will put that information in the Episode Notes, so you guys are able to easily access that. If you’re driving or walking, you don’t need to worry about writing it down at this moment.
Emotional and Practical Support
Jordan Benshea: Once they reach out, Bree, what happens next?
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: If they reach out by email, then I will typically respond myself, and I’ll try to get that done within 24 hours. I’ll address their concern directly. Frequently, I’ll invite people to call my team and schedule a time to chat with me, because I feel like that connection is so helpful. It’s so helpful to know that you’re not alone, and that your problem is one that so many people have been through. I have talked to people who have diverted drugs from their supply, and we find them help and we help them get into recovery. I have talked to people who have made really tragic errors in medicine or surgery, and I have been able to connect them with other folks who have been through that and have come out the other side. There’s no human foible that we haven’t really managed, and, gosh, I think it’s so helpful to know that you’re not alone in making a mistake or making a bad decision or a bad choice. Perhaps you made all the good decisions and all the right choices, and the cards just didn’t play out in your favor, and you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. There’s nothing wrong with that. We’re here to help.
Jordan Benshea: Yeah, so often in life plans don’t really work out the way that we expect them to. Right now is a perfect example. I think one thing that it seems like we hear so often with Vets4Vets is just how much people appreciate that when they reach out what they’re getting is a tangible one on one response and conversation with you and almost as an immediate triage to be there, to listen, and then to help determine what’s the best approach from there. Can you talk a little bit about the different groups, Cancer Vets and Vets in Recovery? If you can, talk a little bit about Dr. Susan Cohen’s group and what the other options are that would be great.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: Yeah, we have two amazing psychotherapists that help us out. We have Dr. Susan Cohen, and she runs this really great support group. They meet every Thursday night at nine o’clock eastern time, and good news for everybody that’s quarantining themselves, you can meet with the support group from home using your computer. They like to do a video and either sound through the computer or with a dial up, whatever gives you the best sound. People show up in their jammies with a hot cocoa or a glass of wine. Susan does such a wonderful job of shepherding the group. Every week, she sends out a little email to all of us saying here are some things to read, and it’s always something that I’m like, oh, man, I’m so glad I got that today it was just the message I needed, or maybe I’ll have that message today, but maybe I’ll need it tomorrow. The group works with everything. Sometimes there’ll be a veterinarian there that’s a new grad, and they’re already on their third job. They wonder if this is the right profession for them because they’ve stepped in poop so many times. The group, because they become a supportive group for each other, will help that new grad to recognize what went wrong in the interview process or what they were noticing in their interview process. Other times, it’ll be somebody who’s all the way on the other side of the spectrum and they’re getting ready to sell their practice and retire or someone that is having a divorce and they have personal stuff going on. They just need some collegial support from people that are in the same tribe. That’s a beautiful group that meets every week. We have Dr. Michele Gaspar who is a veterinarian and also a psychotherapist. Sometimes we hook people up with her so they can have somebody to walk along with them while they find some actual boots on the ground therapists. We don’t offer therapy through Vets4Vets, but we have folks trained with good solid therapy chops to walk alongside you while you find a therapist. That can be really helpful as well. Those are two of the more esoteric support options that we have, and then of course, our mentor match. We try to hook people up with folks who’ve been through similar problems. I have a couple people in our mentor match team who have been through bankruptcies. If you are considering a bankruptcy or reconsolidation, they can walk through that with folks. Sometimes I’ll have someone who is trying to get into shelter vet medicine, so I have a couple folks that have worked in shelter vet medicine right now, and they can talk to them about that. I’ll just make the plug that I’m always looking for more mentors, so if you’re interested in helping folks, it’s a nice thing, a nice way of giving back.
Jordan Benshea: A lot of Vets4Vets is peer to peer support which is, I think that right now, hopefully, one of the benefits of this time that we will see come out of this challenging time is communities supporting communities and people supporting people, and an increase in kindness and support in the midst of this very uncertain and unknown time. That people can find solace, that they’re never alone. Somebody is always here, and it can be completely confidential. Sometimes it seems like what we find is that people just writing an email and sharing their information that seems to be therapeutic enough, and that if you even reach out to them, you might not hear back because for them just that email was sort of an offloading, and their own sort of therapy that they needed at the moment.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: I hear that frequently from folks. God, I’m so happy just to know that I’m not alone in this, just being able to tell you what I’m thinking helps me feel better. The cool thing, almost every phone call, it doesn’t matter how deep the tears are when we start the phone call, there’s almost always laughter in the middle and towards the end, because we just have such a common thread. Things that suck, man, they suck for everyone, and we’ve both stepped in it. It’s just so comforting to know that we’re not alone in our struggle. We’re all moving things forward together.
Jordan Benshea: Right.
Coping Strategies During Crisis
Jordan Benshea: What do you think in this time where, as we’ve mentioned a few times already, there’s a lot of uncertainty and people are unsure what’s going to happen next week, let alone tomorrow, I think our stock market went within 16 market days from almost all time high to a bear market, so we’re looking at very uncertain times, what are some of the tricks or tips rather that you rely on? As a full time, practicing veterinarian and a practice owner along with running Vets4Vets, what are some things that you rely on, your tools or tangible tips that you do that you felt make a difference?
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: You know, one of the things that’s really happening a lot right now is there’s the news is constantly searching for a scarier and more impactful story, and they’re really digging and searching for numbers and pictures and dramatic stuff, because that’s what drives the news. Frankly, the news is scary. The truth is scary, so I think that it really helps us when things are bad, and this is what I do when I’m in surgery and I hit an artery, I hear that whoosh sound. First of all, stick your thumb on the news, stick your thumb on the artery, and then take a minute. When you feel your body ramping up, and we all are right now. We’re all feeling our bodies ramping up. When we feel it ramp up, take a minute. I like to say, breath, body, brain. What I do is I stick my thumb on that artery, I take a breath, and I relax my body, and I remind myself that this is something that I can cope with. We want to start with a breath. We read online or we read on our Facebook group, or in our team that people are talking about shutting down your hospital for a couple months. Well, let’s just take a breath on that. Figure out if that’s going to be right for us. We’re going to take a breath before we do anything. We’re going to relax our body, and then we’ll allow our brain to do its job. Our brain needs to say, “Is this really a dramatic problem right now? Am I in danger? Am I physically in danger?” Chances are excellent that we’re not physically in danger right now. We need to remind our whole body of that, so that we can access the whole brain because when we are in danger, really all we need to be doing is running or fighting. Once we tell our brain and our brain figures out that we’re not in danger, then we can make better decisions. I think that one of the most important things that we need to remember is how awesome we are at biosecurity. We are the soul of biosecurity on the veterinary medicine side. We’re here to keep the animals safe, we’re here to keep the people safe by keeping the animals safe. We know so much about containing disease, and containing infection, and sterilizing and keeping things clean. We deal with more poop than anyone, and we know how to clean it up faster than anyone, so we need to remember that we are safe, and we know how to keep ourselves safe. If we’re immune suppressed. If we’re one of the at risk population folks, then we know what we need to do. If we’re not, and we need to keep our hospitals open so that we can provide emergency care, we know how to do that safely. We know how to assess people and help them understand how to keep a safe distance. We know how to make people follow rules. We’re good at that, so we just need to remember that we live in a sweet spot. I think that’s really important. I think it’s so helpful when you hear too much news, figure out how much news you need to hear to make good decisions for your life, turn off the rest of it and do something inspirational. Create something, reach out and help someone. The thing that is best for me when I’m having the worst time is to do something for someone else.
Jordan Benshea: I think all those are really good tips, especially, I think one of the things that you mentioned is realizing that you have the tools within you, you know what to do and you have the best practices. It’s so easy in this current timeframe and news cycle to just feel overwhelmed. Oh my gosh, I have no idea what’s going on, and I don’t know what to do! I’m totally, I’m completely out of control. If you just take that moment, and even recently we’ve been talking about just talk to yourself. That’s totally okay. Talk to yourself and say, “You know what, I’ve got this. I can only control my actions and reactions, but this I’ve got. This is what I know.” You can start with that framework, and make sure you’re reality checking yourself and not getting caught up in this endless, right. I think part of it also is in the midst of all of this, the best thing that we can all do is stay healthy, and the best way to stay healthy is to take the best care that we can of ourselves. That doesn’t mean being selfish about it. It just means remember that if you’re drinking fluids, getting sleep as much as you can, and eating the right foods that you are going to stay healthy. You’re also going to be prepared to take the best care of your clients and your patients and your staff and your loved ones.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: Absolutely.
Maintaining Routine and Setting Goals
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: I’m going to tell you what one of the things that we’re doing with my team here at the hospital. We do a couple things that I think could easily, they’re just really helpful for us, so I’ll tell you guys about them and try to roll them out if it makes sense for you. We put a white board up on the wall and on one column we have our long term goals, in the middle column we have our weekly goals, and in the far right column we have our daily goals. I noticed that as this COVID-19 thing has been rolling along, it’s definitely impacting us a lot. We just had a beautiful snowstorm. We have this amazing sunny day with Hollywood snow coming down. I have been hiking to work with my Husky through three and a half feet of snow and it’s just beautiful. All of our ski resorts have closed indefinitely, so many of my clients work in the ski industry and the hospitality industry. That’s impacted our hospital and I’ve noticed that our daily goals were a lot different a couple weeks ago. Today….
Jordan Benshea: You’ve seen them shift.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: They really changed. Our daily goals, first of all, we weren’t making them for a little while. I think we were all sort of in a panic mode, so yesterday we said, “You know what, we need to do our daily goals.” We like to do them at the beginning of everybody’s week run of shifts. We were like all behind, so we did them yesterday. Mine was to drink a lot of water for my daily goal because I know I can do that and of course and I’m working on pushups, and I have a couple of physical goals like that. My intellectual goal is to work on my rounds that I have for my course that I have coming up for VSPN, and polish that a little bit. I made my goals simpler and simpler, as life has gotten harder and harder, but I’ve kept my long term goals because I know that this is a short term problem. It’s a hot problem, and like all hot fires, it’s going to burn fast. We will be back. We’ll be back to our normal life. It’ll be a new normal, but just like a forest fire rips through the forest, it cleans some stuff out, and it helps us have better habits, and it helps us value things more. That’s what’s going to happen here. We’ll be back to business as usual. However, I hope we’ll be back to business as unusual. I hope we’ll be more appreciative of our colleagues and our opportunity to help others. I hope that as we start filling out our long term, weekly, and daily goals, that maybe we’ll add something a little more spiritual in, too.
Jordan Benshea: Yeah, you know, it’s really interesting, I think that there is so much back to what you’re saying about you’re reacting in the moment. It almost seems like you forgot the goals, because there was panic and we really have this rare opportunity which doesn’t feel like a happy thing in the moment, but when you start to get all of this information, there’s this moment that you have when you are given information before you react. That moment is where all the power lies. That’s the moment where you really have the opportunity to, in some cases, take a moment and step back and say, “Okay, how am I going to react to this?” Because so often we just instantly react and that instant reaction can snowball, right? We get so stuck in this instant, immediate news crawl, news, news, so much information. If we take a moment in that moment between when we get information and when we react, that’s where we can control that situation. You know, control in general is really an illusion, but right there, that’s where it lives. It’s sort of the sweet spot, and it’s so hard to remember that in those moments.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: It’s so tempting. Honestly, the news that comes in on our social media and on the television, if you listen to radio, the news that rolls in, it’s screaming, me, me, me, now, now, now! If we can keep our schedule, go to work, and make our breakfast if we’re working from home, or if we’re not going to work, if we can keep our schedule, keep our life going forward, because who are we? We’re veterinarians. What do we do? We learn and we help. So, let’s say, our hospital has scaled back, and we’re not going to work for a while. Oh, my gosh, what a beautiful time to take some CE! What a beautiful time to paint a picture! What a beautiful time to play some games with our family, to do all of those things that we never have time to do. It is not going to last long. Before you know it, we’re going to be digging out of the storm, so let’s take some time to really be with the people that matter to us, be with ourselves, sit with our dreams, and reassess some goals and move forward, because if we’re moving forward towards something, then we’re not moving away from something, we’re moving in a positive direction. I’d love for us to take this opportunity to live and flow.
Jordan Benshea: Yes, and I think that it can seem for some people who have kids at home and have no idea when those kids are going back to school.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: Oh my god, it’s so hard.
Jordan Benshea: It seems like they’re never going back to school! All these different things that are piling up, whether it’s bills or anything, I would say it may be a good idea to even, as you mentioned, goals, sometimes it’s really small, very small, attainable goals that you can do right here.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: Yeah, drink water!
Jordan Benshea: Exactly. Try to drink one more glass of water today, and that might be the goal
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: yeah, that’s okay.
Jordan Benshea: Try to take a five minute walk. That might be the goal, right? Whatever it is, even just those little miniature goals, there’s little things that everyone can do in a day, even the tiny, tiny goals. I think what you said also about keeping a routine is vitally important in this time. That can be really hard when everything’s up in the air. Your schedules all changed. You’ve got kids at home. You’ve got work scenes all off. Keep a routine if you can, but if it’s not possible to keep a routine, definitely focus on little, tiny, small goals just day by day. As you say, we have no idea how long this is going to last or what the full impact is going to be. Nobody does but what we do know is what can we do right here and now and what small goal can we do right now that today I can accomplish that. One thing I’ve personally started doing is, at the end of every day keeping a joy…
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: A gratitude journal!
Jordan Benshea: For what today happened. Yeah, similar, just like, what did I do today that brought me any amount of joy? It might be 30 seconds; it might be five seconds. Let’s just start with what we’ve got, and if we start with that, and then at the end of the week, you look at that. It could be on a piece of paper or whatever. Today, looking at my dog for four seconds. Who knows what it is, but whatever that is, then I think that when you start to look back on that, it’s like, wow, that’s something positive to really look at. Again, my goal today, drink one more glass of water. Over the week, that’s five more glasses of water. Those things build up, in a positive way.
Final Thoughts and Encouragement
Jordan Benshea: I think these things are very tangible things that you can do to help but at the same time understanding that you’re not alone, people are here, and we’re here to help and support. The VIN Foundation is here with all of our resources, which are all free and available at no cost to every veterinarian, you don’t need to be a VIN member, and veterinary students. We’re really just here to help and you are not alone. That’s the most important thing. I think that sometimes it can be really scary when we’re in dark moments in our life to feel like, oh, my God, nobody’s gone through this before and shame and embarrassment. The thing is for sure someone’s gone through it before.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: Chances are if it’s something really dumb that you’ve done, I’ve done it twice, so you’re in great shape. I did it once and then I did it again just in case it wasn’t a bad enough idea the first time.
Jordan Benshea: Just to make sure! Was that a bad idea? Yep, check, still a bad idea.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: You know, I have so much experience and the only way to get experience is by doing dumb things, and I’ve just got a ton of it.
Jordan Benshea: That’s true that a lot of times you only learn by failing and we are all a work in progress.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: Yeah, I’m so willing to try something dumb! I hope we could share the message that we’re here for you. We’re here for you every day. I would also say I really want all of us to know, all of us in this profession that can be so isolating, and it can be so challenging, it’s so hard on our heart sometimes, and it’s so helpful to know that we’ve got a buddy out there.
Jordan Benshea: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Bree, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you taking the time out. I know that you’ve got a really busy schedule and a full practice and a boarding facility and everything along with an adorable husky puppy
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: right now he’s probably causing trouble.
Jordan Benshea: Well, thank you so much for your time, and I really appreciate you being here.
Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP: Yeah, happy to be here.
Jordan Benshea: Thanks Bree.
Outro
Jordan Benshea: Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Veterinary Pulse. Please check the Episode Notes for additional information referenced in the podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, please follow, subscribe, and share a review. We welcome feedback and hope you will tune in again. You can find out more about the VIN Foundation through our website, VINFoundation.org, and our social media channels. Thank you for being here. Be well.
