Supporting data for “The roadmap to bettering the mental health of Hong Kong veterinarians through mixed-methods study and animal-assisted education”

There are four sets of data in total.

Dataset 1 involved qualitative in-depth one-to-one interview with 18 Hong Kong veterinarians in companion animal practices were conducted between December 2020 and March 2021. Sixteen veterinarians and two veterinary specialists, consists of six male and twelve female, were asked of common stressors they face as a veterinarian, the challenges and the reward being a veterinarian, and coping strategies they adopt. This data covering topics on client and animal related stress, workplace and profession related stress, stress from the general public and from their self-expectations.

Dataset 2 involved quantitative online survey collected from 56 Hong Kong veterinarians during January 2022 and March 2022 that explored their mental health situation, stressors, and self-compassion. Validated scale used in this survey covering areas of job demand and support (DCSQ), compassion satisfaction and fatigue (ProQOL), self-compassion and criticism (SCS), euthanasia distress (EDS), entrapment (E-SF), suicidality (SBQ-R), depression (PHQ-9), and anxiety (GAD-7). Demographic variables such as Cantonese proficiency and years of qualification were collected, as well as work-related information such as employment status, specialty and seniority, practice location, clinic ownership, average work hours per week, and ever received official complaints or been cyberbullied were obtained.

Dataset 3 involved quantitative online pre and post survey were collected in 2022/23 semester 1from 24 students (total of 39 entries) from the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine at the City University of Hong Kong that assess their mental health literacy and mental health status after having attended an animal-assisted education in mental health (AAE-MH) programme tailored for them. Validated scales used in this survey included Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MHKS), the Community Attitude Towards Mentally III Questionnaire (CAMI III), and Reported and Intended Behavior Scale (RIBS), depression (PHQ-9), and anxiety (GAD-7).

Dataset 4 involved qualitative focus group discussion was conducted in March 2023 involving 5 teachers of Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine at the City University of Hong Kong and 2 moderators from the Department of Social Work and Social Administration from the University of Hong Kong. The three research questions are (1) How relevant are the topics to year 3 BVM students? (2) Do you think the programme is worth sustaining, given the time and resources required? and (3) How can we improve the programme. A deductive summary from the focus group discussion are recorded in the word document.