Marking PTSD Awareness Month with new 'Let's talk PTSD' guide

This ‘PTSD Awareness Month’, we’re delighted to be launching our latest guide: ‘Let’s talk post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)’, as part of our new Applied Mental Health Science series. The guide has been developed in partnership between our Mind Matters Initiative and clinical psychologist Dr Aimee McKinnon.

Introducing PTSD  

As a mental health condition, PTSD can occur following a serious, highly stressful and traumatic event or multiple events. Traumatic events can affect anyone, from any walk of life, although not all will result in experiencing PTSD. 

A traumatic event may have been something that happened directly to you, that you witnessed, that was experienced by someone close to you, or something you were exposed to due to the nature of your professional work. This could include global events such as a pandemic, military conflict, and natural disasters or more personal experiences such as being a victim of domestic abuse/violence, an assault or hate crime, a road traffic accident, being diagnosed with a medical condition, or an unexpected death of a loved one or close friend.  

Whilst events such as these can have a significant impact on an individual, their relationships with others and how they live their daily life, effective clinical support and treatment through psychological therapy and medication is available, and recovery is possible. 

Interested in learning more about PTSD? Check out our new ‘Let’s talk PTSD’ and other available guides on anxiety, depression and OCD. 

PTSD and veterinary professionals 

Whilst PTSD has traditionally been associated with those in the military, many professionals across human healthcare, emergency services, transportation, agriculture and veterinary, are also affected. 

Veterinary professionals work in a wide range of roles and contexts and can face many different occupational factors that have the potential to create traumatic events and experiences. For example, dealing with animal injury and euthanasia, client harassment, incivility, and new diseases - all of which have the potential to create traumatic events and experiences - can affect an individual's mental health and overall wellbeing. Recent research has shown that veterinary professionals may have higher rates of PTSD than the general population (see Kramper et al., 2023). 

A type of trauma that has seen a rise in interest over recent years is 'moral injury' which refers to a situation or event that goes against our moral code, values and/or beliefs. Recent MMI funded research has shown an association between Potential Moral Injurious Events (PMIE’s) and PTSD in veterinary professionals (see Williamson et al., 2023). 

Considerations for organisational support 

For complex mental health conditions such as PTSD, it can sometimes be difficult to know where to start and how to support others in the workplace at an organisational level. How we identify risks, consider our approach and embed appropriate support to manage and mitigate the impact of stressful and traumatic events in the workplace, is crucial. 

One approach that has seen increased interest in recent years, including in the current NHS Long Term Plan, is the concept of ‘trauma-informed practice’. The Mental Health Foundation (2025) notes that ‘trauma-informed practice can respond to individuals’ experiences by listening to and valuing people’s stories by creating safe spaces to talk, by showing an understanding of the traumas people have experienced, and by responding to their needs without creating new traumas’. 

The UK Government Office for Health Improvement and Disparities identifies six principles of trauma-informed practice. These are: 

• safety,  
• trust,  
• choice,  
• collaboration,  
• empowerment, and  
• cultural consideration. 

To find out more about trauma-informed practice and these principles in more detail, visit the UK Government website. 
You can also find a number of useful organisations in the key references and resources section below. 

What we’re doing 

Our recent ground-breaking survey with the British Veterinary Chronic Illness Society, Disability and Chronic Illness in Veterinary Work and Education (2024), showed a pressing need to talk about disability and the provision of support through reasonable adjustments in veterinary workplaces.    

Our Let's Talk Adjustments campaign aims to raise awareness and empower everyone in veterinary workplaces, no matter their role, disability or health condition, to have important conversations about reasonable adjustments.  To find out more, visit our dedicated campaign page. 

If you are interested in finding out more about stress, you may also find our new 'Understanding and Managing Stress in the Veterinary Workplace' guide, which forms part of the Applied Mental Health Science series, a useful resource. Within the guide, we focus on the importance of workplace wellbeing, and what leaders and managers can do to proactively manage stress and support individuals to thrive in their roles and ensure they get the necessary support where needed. 

Useful links 

• Birth Trauma Association 
• Blue Cross Pet Loss Support 
• British Horse Society Friends at the End  
• Cruse Bereavement Support 
• Disaster Action 
• PTSD UK 
• RoadPeace 
• Survivors Trust  
• Victim Support 

Key references and resources 

Kramper, S., Crosby, E. S., Waitz-Kudla, S. N., Weathers, F., & Witte, T. K. (2023). Highly stressful events and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among veterinary professionals: Prevalence and associations with mental health and job-related outcomes. Psychological trauma: theory, research, practice, and policy, 15(S2), S275. 

Mental Health Foundation. Trauma-informed practice: our policy perspective. (Accessed 17 June 2025). 

UK Government, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Working definition of trauma-informed practice (Accessed 17 June 2025). 

Williamson, V., Murphy, D., & Greenberg, N. (2022). Experiences and impact of moral injury in UK veterinary professional wellbeing. European journal of psychotraumatology, 13(1), 2051351. 

Check out our range of free, accessible and evidenced-based guides via the Mind Matters website. 

Vetlife – Burnout, Compassion Fatigue & Moral Injury.