Rebecca Stephens (right) receives her 'Member of the Year' award from the President of the IAVSW

A Senior Lecturer in Social Work from the University of Sussex and pioneer of veterinary social work in the UK is named “Member of the Year” by the International Association of Veterinary Social Work in recognition of her development and rollout of innovative interdisciplinary CPD opportunities for professionals and establishment of new partnerships in veterinary and social work fields.

Senior Lecturer in Social Work & Social Care and pioneer of veterinary social work in the UK , Rebecca Stephens, was the recipient of two awards from the 8^th International Association of Veterinary Social Work (IAVSW) Summit on 13/14 September held in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

The first, the “International Association of Veterinary Social Work Member of the Year” was awarded for Rebecca’s contributions as Director of Education for the IAVSW in developing new and innovative interdisciplinary CPD opportunities for professionals working across social work, veterinary medicine and nursing, mental health, and animal welfare globally. The award also recognised Rebecca’s contributions in establishing new partnerships in the veterinary and social work fields, including schools of veterinary medicine, veterinary nursing, and social work to shape the creation of Veterinary Social Work in the UK.

Rebecca’s second award was a Postgraduate Veterinary Social Work Certificate from the University of Tennessee for which Rebecca was involved in the conducting of a small-scale study to evaluate Brighton & Hove and East Sussex Children’s Services social workers’ knowledge of the link between the abuse of humans and animals and their experiences of reporting animal abuse (known as ‘The Link’). The findings enabled Rebecca to work with The Links Group to deliver CPD training on ‘The Human-Animal Bond in the Context of Domestic Abuse – Implications for Social Work Practice’ and to conduct a workshop for students on ‘the link,’ pet loss & bereavement, animal welfare and human safeguarding across all social work courses at the University of Sussex as well as on a foundation and an elective course.

On the subject of her awards, Rebecca said:

“Receiving the International Association of Veterinary Social Work Member of the Year Award is a wonderful acknowledgement of the work I’ve been doing internationally to create new and innovative continuing education opportunities for professionals working across social work, veterinary medicine/nursing and animal welfare. Whilst Veterinary Social Work does not exist in the UK, this award also recognises the work that I have been doing to create this field of social work by building partnerships and collaborating on various projects with colleagues in the veterinary and animal welfare sectors to learn with and from one another.

“The University of Tennessee’s PG Veterinary Social Work course is the first and only programme in the world offering a specialist route into Veterinary Social Work. It enabled me to identify gaps in our existing social work education and training in the UK, and embed themes relating to the human-animal bond, the link between the abuse of people and animals and pet loss & bereavement across our social work courses and CPD provision.

“I feel so grateful to have my work formally recognised because it helps to promote the value and need for social workers, veterinarians, and animal welfare specialists to work together to promote the ‘One Health, One Welfare” strategy which is about the interconnectedness of humans, animals and the environment.”