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The Veterinary Wellbeing Collective is a collaborative initiative intended to coordinate work on mental health and wellbeing across veterinary medicine. In an AAHA podcast published June 4, 2026, host Dr. Emily Singler talks with Dr. Addie Reinhard, DVM, MS, MentorVet founder and CEO, about the Collective, why coordination matters, and how others may take part in future discussions.
About the AAHA podcast episode
AAHA describes this episode as a conversation about the Veterinary Wellbeing Collective, coordinating wellbeing efforts, and potential participation in future discussions. AAHA lists Spotify, YouTube, and its learning management system as listening options. The episode listing does not include a transcript or detailed recommendations, so specific advice or tools should not be attributed to the conversation based on its synopsis alone. Listen to or find the episode through AAHA’s listing.
AAHA says its podcast host chats with guests every other week; that describes the series format, not a confirmed release schedule for this particular episode.
What is the Veterinary Wellbeing Collective?
Merck Animal Health describes the Veterinary Wellbeing Collective as a collaborative initiative to advance a coordinated strategy for mental health and wellbeing in veterinary medicine. The effort grew out of a roundtable hosted by Merck at its Rahway, New Jersey, headquarters on July 29, 2025, with 16 mental health and wellbeing experts. Merck announced the Collective on May 4, 2026, identifying priorities that include reducing stigma, improving workplace culture, and pursuing systemic change. Read Merck Animal Health’s announcement.
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Organizations Merck says are represented
Merck’s stated participant list includes MentorVet, Merck Animal Health, the International Association of Veterinary Social Work, the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, Not One More Vet, the American Veterinary Medical Association, Brakke Consulting, Flourish Veterinary Consulting, the Veterinary Hope Foundation, Reviving Veterinary Medicine, the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America, Kent State University, the American Association of Equine Practitioners, and the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. This is the list in Merck’s announcement, not an independently verified current membership roster.
Plans announced for the initiative
Merck’s May 2026 announcement described plans for the Collective to develop a consensus definition of veterinary wellbeing, create a centralized online database of strategies, assessments, tools, and resources, run a joint communications campaign, and hold virtual meetings every two months. The announcement presents these as plans; it does not establish that each item has since been completed or made available to the public.
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Why wellbeing includes more than individual coping
A September 2026 Hound report describes the Collective’s framing as having two connected dimensions. Individual wellbeing concerns a veterinary professional’s own quality-of-life evaluation—how they feel and function, and their sense of meaning and purpose. Systemic wellbeing concerns how workplace and industry systems shape the conditions in which people, organizations, and the profession operate. This is Hound’s account of the framing, rather than a review of the full peer-reviewed paper. Read Hound’s report on the shared definition.
The distinction matters because wellbeing is affected both by personal experience and by the environment in which veterinary teams work. The Collective’s announced priorities, including workplace culture and systemic change, reflect that broader scope; the AAHA episode synopsis does not specify particular interventions or prescribe how clinics should implement them.
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What the reported career-satisfaction figure does—and does not—say
Merck’s May 2026 announcement reports that 75% of veterinarians in its 2023 Veterinary Wellbeing Study said they were satisfied with their careers, a rate Merck says was higher than the U.S. average. This is Merck’s reporting of a study finding, not an independently reviewed result here. The figure is about veterinarians; it should not be extended to veterinary technicians or all veterinary workers. Merck also notes remaining gaps among young professionals, non-veterinarians, and underrepresented groups.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How veterinary workplaces can think about coordination
The Collective’s stated purpose is coordination across the profession, rather than a single program or product. For a veterinary workplace considering its own wellbeing efforts, the individual-and-systemic framing offers a useful way to distinguish where an initiative acts:
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- Four pickup patterns: Flexible cardioid, omni, bidirectional, and stereo pickup patterns allow you to record in ways that would normally require multiple mics, for vocals, instruments and podcasts
- Onboard audio controls: Headphone volume, pattern selection, instant mute, and mic gain put you in charge of every level of the audio recording and streaming process
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- Individual level: support focused on a professional’s own wellbeing and quality of life.
- Workplace level: changes to team culture and the conditions people experience in an organization.
- Systemic level: efforts addressing broader structures and norms across the profession.
These are useful categories for understanding the initiative’s scope, not a ranking of approaches or a specific recommendation from the episode. Merck identifies MentorVet as a participant and points to resources such as peer-support groups and training certificates, but its announcement does not establish current availability, terms, or pricing for those resources.
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