To honor Paul’s last wishes, the Suicide Awareness in Veterinary Education (SAVE) program was developed to educate veterinary professionals and students about mental health issues, and to raise awareness about the resources available to those worried about themselves or someone else. Currently in its early stages, the focus of SAVE is to provide basic information about mental health and how to access help easily available to UTCVM’s faculty, staff, and students. As SAVE develops, it will address the following goals:
- Provide information about mental health issues and how those issues might affect people in veterinary practice, including relationships with colleagues as well as clients.
- Develop a SAVE component to be implemented across all four years of the curriculum for UTCVM veterinary students
- Become the model for mental health education in veterinary schools across the country.