Ever wondered what it’s like to be a veterinary social worker? We recently chatted with Oregon Humane’s only veterinary social worker, Kelly Bremken, about a whole host of topics. She has a positive yet realistic perspective on working in an emotionally and physically demanding field.
From her decision to go back to school to how she keeps healthy boundaries, you’re sure to learn a little about the field and maybe even apply it to your own life.
But first, how did she get here?
From 2006 – 2015, Kelly worked at Oregon Humane in a variety of roles as an animal shelter worker, including foster coordinator (which would end up being a catalyst to head back to school). She moved around a bit in the subsequent years and worked in various places – open admission, wildlife, scheduled admission, you name it. In 2021, she graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a masters in social work.
Transitioning to social work
While doing outreach to drive down intake in a specific community, Kelly’s friend asked her why she was doing social work with no training. That planted a seed. While out in the community, she was building trust and being asked questions outside of the pet world like, ‘how do I get my GED?’ After that project, she thought, “I like the people.” Case in point, her favorite job was being a foster coordinator. Working with volunteers to nurse animals back to health was fulfilling. After a series of life events and after reading an article about Dr. Elizabeth Strand and Dr. Michael Blackwell and the work they were doing, she went ahead and applied to go to the University of Tennessee.
“It’s not always cool in animal sheltering to say ‘I’m a people person.’ Even when a pet is in our care, there’s people attached to it,” she explained. “From co-workers, to the person that dropped the pet off, to the person adopting it, etc. We always immediately have something to bond over – a pet.”
It’s OK to take a break.
When Kelly went to graduate school, she stepped away from working in animal sheltering. “Leaving animal sheltering to work at another job was good for me. I couldn’t do both at the same time. And when I did return, I wanted to. I don’t know if we get that message very often – that it’s OK to step away for any reason,” she said.
Working with the staff is her favorite part of the job
“Watching people work on intentional well-being and realize that taking care of themselves is not a threat to how they can show up and take care of the animals in our care, or the people in their lives. That part brings me the most joy,” Kelly remarked. “Taking care of yourself is not selfish.”
One change that had a huge impact on her workday
She leaves work at work. She has a debrief buddy, someone to close her day with. “We have a 10 minute timer to end the day on,” she said. She turns her brain off when she drives home.
What’s the hardest part of your job and how have you tried to manage/improve it?
“I don’t always like the decisions we have to make and saying that out loud isn’t very popular. I know what outcome we want for the pet and we can’t always get it because of a million different reasons. Now I have the language to say I am feeling moral distress over what I want to happen and can’t make happen,” she replied. “I make peace with it by reminding myself that there is so much good that we do and there are so many times it does work out. There are so many good outcomes. It’s an intentional practice to say, ‘sometimes things do work out.’ It happens more often than not.” In fact, reminding herself that “sometimes things do work out” is often what gets her through a tough moment or day.
How she unwinds after a busy day
Kelly has trained her algorithm to show her animal content on social media. She doesn’t want to see donation pleas, etc after work. She doesn’t turn her work phone back on until she’s back at work saying, “When I’m not here, I’m not here.” Last she shared, “I can’t care more than the client cares. I’m walking alongside someone when they are making decisions.”
Advice to her younger self
“I had to go through some stuff to enjoy what I know now,” she said.
And finally, what advice does she have for someone thinking about becoming a veterinary social worker?
“If someone is interested in learning more about this work, our interdisciplinary professional group is a great resource. The International Association of Veterinary Social Workers (IAVSW) has information on the history of our profession, what we are committed to in the space and where we see the future of our roles,” she said. “And I would encourage people to find a veterinary social worker and chat! We love to talk about our work, and our work can look different depending on the communities we serve and the places where we work. We never tire of talking to folks about what we do, why we do it and the pets and people we are so lucky to meet along the way.”