Volunteer Capacity Building Workshop 2023

Veterinary Track | Building Psychological Resiliency in Animal-care Volunteers

Date: Saturday, May 13, 2023

Location: CDPHE Main Campus | 4300 Cherry Creek S. Dr. Glendale, CO 80246

Join us for a resiliency-building day!

The Volunteer Capacity Building Workshop (VCBW) is an annual event hosted by the Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment’s (CDPHE) Office of Emergency Preparedness & Response.

The purpose of this conference is to maintain and strengthen volunteer capacity within the state.  The veterinary track within the conference focuses on strategies for understanding, assessing, and building psychological resiliency in veterinary volunteers.

Register through CO Train | Course ID#: 1109759

  1. Create a CO Train (instructions)
  2. Register for the VCBW (instructions)

Seating is limited.

The VCBW is in support of fully onboarded, CVM-approved volunteers.

Register through CO Train | Course ID#: 1109759

  1. Create a CO Train (instructions)
  2. Register for the VCBW (instructions)

The Psychology of Disaster

Resources to improve outcomes for disaster-affected communities.

Jolie Wills | Hummingly Co-Founder & CEO -Americas

With true honesty, Jolie shares the story of how disaster shook up her life, her family, the residents in her hometown, and the people working hard to support the city’s recovery.

As a cognitive scientist, a psycho-social recovery expert,  and disaster survivor, Jolie brings a unique lens to understanding the psychology of disaster.  Through this lens, Jolie will share three design challenges and practical resources to improve outcomes for disaster affected communities.

9:05a-10:05a

Data Collection in Animal-Related Disasters

What are we missing?  What can we do better, today?

Dr. Leslie Irvine | University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Sociology

During this lecture, Dr. Leslie Irvine discusses her recently published reviewed article Pet Loss in an Urban Firestorm: Grief & Hope after Colorado’s Marshall Fire.

Dr. Irvine shares her experience conducting this research on the Marshall Fire disaster as well as other large-scale disasters throughout the United States.  She outlines her thoughts on what we’re missing in data collection during animal-related disasters, and what we can do better as soon as today!

10:10a-11:10a

Supporting Veterinary Professionals in Crisis

Importance of relationship & lessons-learned from Marshall Fire.

Elyse Janish, MA | CDPHE Disaster Behavioral Health & Inclusion Planning Coordinator

This lecture discusses the existing veterinary industry mental health crisis and it’s impact on veterinary volunteer capacity and resiliency.

Elyse shares lessons-learned from her role as the lead in a pilot program conducted by the Colorado Spirit team in collaboration with Care for the Healer while providing embedded mental health support to a veterinary shelter after Marshall Fire.

11:15a-12:15p

Leadership Workshop (15 seats)

Speaker: Jolie Wills | Hummingly Co-Founder & CEO-Americas

This invitational, small group (15 seats) workshop is designed for Colorado veterinary community and disaster response leaders.

We’re proud to bring together our colleagues and community leaders from across the animal-care community to discuss strategies for understanding, assessing, and building psychological resiliency among veterinary professional volunteers.

This workshop will build knowledge on leadership during crisis and recovery.  Participants will learn skills for leading veterinary professional communities during recovery from a disaster.

12:15p-4:25p

A special thank you:

To CDPHE’s Office of Emergency Preparendess & Response to allowing us to share their space during the VCBW 2023.

The existing mental health crisis and consequent personnel shortages of the veterinary industry directly impact the capacity and resiliency of veterinary volunteers that are available to respond to an animal-related disastern within the Front Range of Colorado.

Additionally, the COVID pandemic has and continues to exacerbate the effects of prolonged stress within veterinary teams and on the families of veterinary professionals.

The ability for veterinary professionals to continue operating well – individually and collectively, both in their paid and volunteer roles, is crucial for the day-to-day public health and safety of our communities.

The resiliency of the veterinary professional community is an essential factor to consider when assessing community preparedness and the availability an effective medical response during animal-related disasters.

The goal of this workshop is to build an understanding of the complexity of mental health environment for veterinary medical professionals, it’s effect on the mental health and resiliency of veterinary volunteers.

This workshop addresses how to help animal-care volunteers respond well to the challenges of disaster preparation and response.

Walk away from this workshop with strategies for supporting and developing the veterinary professionals that are among your organization’s volunteers.

By the end of this workshop participants will be able to:

  1.      Articulate the hazardous nature of working under acute, prolonged and cumulative stress for animal health professionals
  2. Articulate the risks of cumulative stress on veterinary organization teams and service provision (for example, compromised information-processing and medical problem-solving)
  3. Analyze the environment around medical volunteers through a psychosocial hazards lens and identify opportunities for positive action to reduce harm
  4. Apply the triple responsibility model for workforce resilience – an easily implemented ‘whole of organization’ approach to workforce resilience
  5. Leave with a leadership toolkit of practical resources that can be immediately applied to support the wellbeing, resilience and performance of animal-care teams

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