Andrea Lindquist is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at VCA’s West Coast Specialty and Emergency Animal Hospital in Fountain Valley, Ca. She previously worked in mental health hospitals and clinics with people facing psychiatric, dementia, and caregiving needs. She tells us about her opportunity to blend her lifelong love for animals with her passion for helping others in a professional capacity at VCA.

I was totally unaware of this job until three years ago.
I’m based in a hospital and my job is split between providing support for our client base and providing support directly and indirectly to our Associates. In a 24-hour emergency and specialty facility there is a lot of trauma, grief and loss. I provide opportunities for clients and Associates to talk about traumatic events, help them navigate crisis and make sure they are educated on self-care. Sometimes it isn’t a single event, but just an accumulation of stressors that lead to someone being in an emotional crisis or struggling, and I can make sure they are connected to supports.

I joined VCA because this was a really interesting role.
I thought briefly about being a veterinarian when I was starting college, but decided upon the path of working with people in mental health. I was impressed with this role because it is a really unique way to practice social work. Not only do you have the individual and small group work, but you also get the opportunity to do program development and company-wide initiatives and trainings.

When I was interviewing, I was really impressed to learn how much VCA puts into its Associates in terms of taking care of their well-being.

Our social worker community at VCA is small, but mighty.
There are five other social workers besides me in VCA and we are spread out throughout the United States. But, we meet every week – a couple times a week, actually – so we are very tight-knit and working in the same capacity within large emergency and specialty hospitals. We all enjoy the support we get to provide to the broader company as well.

We’re all together forging this newest role at VCA. We’re all passionate about animals and passionate about helping others. We come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but we have a lot of similar threads that run through our clinical lens. We bring a wealth of experience and sound clinical practice to what we’re doing at our hospitals.

There’s a relatively small number of veterinary social workers nationwide, so to have our team at VCA is pretty remarkable.

I’m part of VCA’s energy initiative, which works to help our Associates manage their physical and emotional energy.
We just kicked it off in August, so it’s very new, but this was in response to last year’s Associate engagement survey. A theme came out of the survey was that Associates felt there could be improvement in their energy and the amount of energy they had left to do other things they enjoy in their lives. What’s great is that VCA listened to the feedback and continues to invest in resources for our people.

We have dedicated energy champions who are starting conversations about energy around the country with hospital teams.
Every hospital was sent a care package with tools to learn how to get the energy conversation started – and asked to identify an energy champion who can lead that effort. We are having ongoing discussions and training opportunities for Associates to improve their energy and see what can make an impact for their teams. We also have energy communities and support that extends across hospitals all over the nation.

VCA also partners with Lyra to provide mental health support to all Associates. Everyone has access to therapy, coaching sessions, self-guided tools and webinars.

There is also free access to Headspace – which is a wellness platform that offers support and resources to help Associates with mindfulness, meditation, sleep and movement, which are all things that can support your energy when built into your routine.

I’ve seen how something really small can create improved energy in a person and even in an entire team. There was a time when our hospital was in a slump. We had gone through a lot of changes and morale had taken a big hit. All of a sudden, somebody started putting out little rubber duckies. People started getting “ducked.”

You’d come into work to find a duck on your desk or workstation. Suddenly, there was this buzz around the office. People were trying to figure out who was putting the ducks out. At one point a group of Associates created a flowchart to try to figure out who it was. It was funny and energizing the way everybody came together. It was a turning point and it felt like we were all on the same team again.

It was proof that all you have to do is start small and start somewhere.