From burnout to balance: why mental health support matters

Carole Parsons MRCVS reflects on a 20-year clinical career shaped by varied responses to her mental health. Some practices offered empathy and adjustments; others worsened her condition through lack of support. Now running a successful acupuncture business, she champions greater mental health awareness and proactive support in the profession.

I started my career in 2003 in a small, two-partner rural mixed practice, when such a thing was not as uncommon as it is today. I felt very supported, and it was a great place to find my feet. Meeting my future husband meant a move to the West Midlands and, after some locum work, I found a busy farm and equine role with weekends on-call. The hours were reasonably long and sometimes stressful, but I felt confident in what I did and completed the core modules of the CertAVP in that time. 

I experienced postnatal anxiety, but always felt like work was a safe space.  

After a two-year sabbatical in South Africa, I sought a job with no on-call as we were planning to start a family. I joined an amazingly supportive, two-vet independent small animal practice which was growing. Although I sometimes felt the move from large to small animal work - combined with my two years out from work - left me a little behind my peers, my managers were great and tailored my work to my strengths and interests. They funded my foundation training in acupuncture, and pain management became my focus. I experienced postnatal anxiety after a tricky time with my first child, but always felt like work was a safe space where I could offload to my colleagues and be a respected adult again, away from the pressures of being a stressed-out mum. 

I felt my bosses resented having to back up an experienced vet. 

We later relocated again with two very young children, and I took on a job with increased hours and out-of-hours (OOH) duties. Despite warning my new bosses that I hadn’t done OOH for several years and being assured of support in the early days, I felt they started to resent having to back up an experienced vet. When an emergency surgery I performed developed complications, I started to feel like the other staff were questioning my competence and judgement - and so did I. On New Year's Day, when a gastric dilatation volvulus (GDV) turned up, I panicked, and both partners had to come in and take over. I remember watching my boss operate while I stood by with chest pain. We had some financial worries at that point too, so I felt pressure to make the job work, but my anxiety worsened and I started counselling. 

Work was no longer a safe place, and I only slept well on my days off. After nine months in the job, I was making clinical errors and questioning my fitness to practice. On the verge of a breakdown, I arrived at work one day, went straight into the toilets and, sobbing in the cubicle, phoned the GP to ask for a sick note - the first time in my 17-year career I had ever needed more than a day off. 

My managers apologised for putting pressure on me, even though they hadn't been aware of my situation. 

Then COVID hit, and lockdown gave me a chance to recover and spend time with my children. I resolved to put my family before my job. After three months off, I took a 19-hour role at a local practice that valued workplace wellbeing. My confidence started to return, and I wanted to do more of what I loved - acupuncture. After a year, I started running a mobile acupuncture service. It grew, and two years on, with my children both at school, I left clinical practice to run the service full-time.  
 
When I was asked to do some extra hours in one practice and explained I was experiencing postnatal anxiety, the managers called me in for a meeting to ask if they could do anything to help. They immediately apologised for putting any pressure on me, even though they hadn’t been aware of my situation. Just having that conversation made me feel better, and I didn’t feel the need to ask for anything else at that time. 
 
At another practice, when experiencing severe anxiety symptoms, managers would only book one or two simple surgeries on my operating days, and reworked appointments to ensure I had a reasonable lunch break so I could get out for a walk. Being able to escape to the local nature reserve, have a mental break and reset, made the day more manageable. I would use a walking meditation from the Calm app and come back with a better perspective to tackle the rest of the day. 

Common myths about reasonable adjustments

Myth: reasonable adjustments require a significant financial investment 

For me, while a lower caseload would have helped at times, what I really needed was to feel supported and not judged. When my confidence was really low and brain fog hit, an empathetic colleague stayed close by, enabling me to ask for a second opinion when I was questioning my own judgement. This meant I was able to handle an urgent case through to conclusion rather than having to pass it over because I wasn’t coping. 

Myth: reasonable adjustments are only for people with physical disabilities 

Mental ill health will affect all of us directly or indirectly in our lifetimes. How it's handled at work will make the difference between losing or keeping a valued colleague. In one supportive practice, my work was my safe space; my competence was never questioned when I asked for help that I hadn’t needed before. In another, work became the problem as I was left to flounder, and resentment about my inability to function to my paygrade was in the background all the time.  

Myth: reasonable adjustments give an unfair advantage 

We all have periods in our life when we need to be given extra support or some slack - how would you want to be treated when your time came?   

Myth: employers must wait for staff to initiate conversations about reasonable adjustments  

Under their duty of care, employers must educate themselves on what to look out for if a colleague is not performing to an expected level, particularly if this is a change. Unfortunately, the stigma around some conditions, combined with the high standards vets set for themselves, means that staff may be drowning silently while pretending they are fine.  

Myth: you must be with an organisation for several years to request reasonable adjustments

As in my case, a change in responsibilities with a new role can introduce new factors that mean a person may not cope as well as they have in the past. Providing an adequate induction and ongoing support may make the difference between them staying and becoming a productive team member - or giving up and leaving.  

Myth: a rude colleague is just difficult - not struggling with mental health

Anxiety isn't just feeling stressed and overwhelmed - it can be that, but there are all sorts of insidious symptoms that can affect your abilities and confidence. For me, the brain fog was frightening; sometimes a brusque word from a colleague meant I could literally feel my frontal cortex shutting down, to the point where I couldn’t calculate a dog’s heart rate from a 15-second count.  
 
A change in personality during mental illness isn’t someone being rude or difficult - it's a sign of an extreme fight or flight response. I remember answering my boss very defensively when she questioned my decision about a case. In that moment, I didn’t have any control over how I responded, I just wanted her off my back! The next day, when I'd had time to calm down, I realised I had sounded like my stroppy six-year-old. I was able to apologise and explain my reaction - but only because I already had a good relationship with her before becoming ill. 

Support and information

The Mind Matters Initiative’s (MMI) new Applied Mental Health Science Series provides expert-led resources on stress and mental health in veterinary practice. 

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