How veterinary medicine’s first mental health and wellness manager is helping to build a culture of care

The capacity to care deeply is a great strength for those in the veterinary medicine field. But it can also carry significant emotional weight.

Students at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM), are preparing for a profession in which they may regularly encounter animal suffering, complex client relationships, grief and loss. Faculty, staff and clinical teams experience many of those same pressures while also supporting learners and one another.

Enter Johanna Holm, the first manager of mental health and wellness at the UCVM. Her role was created approximately a year and a half ago to support the people carrying that weight and to help reshape the environments in which they learn and work. 

“I felt like this was such a unique role because I could support individuals while also contributing to structural change,” says Holm.

Holm offers a familiar place to begin when someone at the faculty needs help, but her work goes beyond referrals and individual support. She identifies recurring concerns, reduces barriers, and helps embed well-being into UCVM’s programs, processes and culture.

The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association has identified mental health and burnout as a national workforce concern. It notes that burnout and mental-health challenges are contributing to attrition in a profession already facing a significant shortage of veterinarians.

A role designed for an interconnected community

Holm joined UCVM in January 2025 after more than 20 years at UCalgary, many of them spent in the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM). There, she led the evolution and significant expansion of the Student Affairs and Wellness Hub, which provides support to approximately 2,200 learners across CSM’s undergraduate, medical and graduate programs.

UCVM gave her the chance to build a new mental health and well-being portfolio from the ground up. But,instead of supporting students alone, she would work with students, faculty and staff together.

“If a faculty member is not well, a student is going to feel it. If a staff member is not well, the team is going to feel it,” Holm says. “Everything is integrated.”

Sometimes, a person needs counselling or another professional service. At other times, a compassionate response may involve changing a process, improving communication, equipping faculty and staff to recognize distress, or creating space for a team to process a shared experience.

Responding to the culture of veterinary medicine

Holm brought extensive experience in health-professions education to UCVM, but she did not assume that a model developed in medicine could simply be transferred to veterinary medicine.

She began by listening to students, faculty and staff and learning about the faculty’s distinct culture. Holm saw pressure impacting students when a UCVM team was experiencing the cumulative emotional effects of euthanasia and animal loss. Rather than waiting for individual members to reach burnout or seek support independently, she helped arrange therapist-led team debriefs.

The debriefs created a shared space to acknowledge the emotional realities of the work. 

“Those conversations reminded people that acknowledging the emotional impact of their work isn’t a sign of weakness — it’s part of being human,” says Holm.

Giving people a clear place to begin

Holm describes her role as helping people “find the right door.”

UCalgary offers a wide range of mental health and well-being resources, but those systems can be difficult to navigate when someone is already overwhelmed. A person may know that a service exists without knowing whom to contact.

“It just makes a lot of sense to be able to have a person who can help everyone,” Holm says. “You have a face to the name.”

Holm’s visibility within the faculty helps make those early conversations possible. Her aim is for students, faculty and staff to get to know her — before they need her.

From responding to distress to preventing it

Holm has led initiatives such as Mental Health Awareness Week, Pause for Paws, Forum on Failure and therapist-led workshops.

Pause for Paws creates an informal opportunity for students, faculty and staff to step away from demanding academic and clinical work, spend time with animals and connect with one another. “Sometimes, it’s simply giving people permission to pause during a demanding week,” says Holm.

Forum on Failure creates space for community members to speak openly about setbacks and recognize that struggle is not something they experience alone.

By making those conversations more visible, these initiatives can help reduce stigma and build a culture where vulnerability, learning and mutual support are accepted parts of professional education.

A culture built through everyday actions

Holm’s work puts several principles of UCalgary's Community Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy (CMHWS) into practise within the context of veterinary medicine. 

Her role gives the UCVM community a person who can listen, help and connect, while also working to ensure that well-being is woven into how the faculty learns, works and supports one another every day.

“No single interaction transforms a culture. Together, however, they help create a faculty where people know that support is available, feel more comfortable asking for it and recognize that caring for one another is part of the work,” says Dr. Jennifer Thannhauser, PhD'12, academic director of the CMHWS.