THRIVE Veterinary Wellness Symposium - Monday 12 May 2025 (9am-5.30pm)  ICC Sydney

 

Our third THRIVE Wellness Symposium will empower you to build a well workplace, one that cares for the whole team’s wellbeing. We've listened to delegate feedback, and this event will be better than ever! We've made key improvements to the program, panels, and more to ensure this is our best symposium yet.   

Facilitated by Dr Diana Barker, this is an interactive and dynamic day suitable for all members of the veterinary team.  

We will share insights on psychosocial safety including inclusiveness practices for the whole team, an update on suicide prevention and how embracing vulnerability underpins everything. 

You will walk away with new knowledge, new skills, and new connections that effect the wellbeing and success of you and your team.   

Program highlights include:  

• Psychological Safety – everyone is talking about it but what does it look like in practice? Carly Webster – Cultivating Safe Teams facilitator 

• Suicide Prevention in our Profession: What we know and what we need to learn. Dr Alena Gadoury 

• Thriving neurodivergence in veterinary spaces. Dr Jodie Wilson 

• Building a well workplace: Managing incivility. Cat Walker

• Menopause in the workplace: Creating an inclusive and supportive environment. Dr Haidee Gray 

• Building a well Workplace: The central role of vulnerability and trust. Dr Richard Read

PLUS

• Three panel discussions interspersed through the day will allow delegates to pose questions about practical implementation of these ideas. 

As with all THRIVE activities our learning deliverables align with an integrated wellness framework:  

• Prevent mental health injury 

• Promote the positive aspects of work and 

• Protect individuals who are experiencing mental ill-health so they can return to work and thrive.  

Explore our speaker profiles here: 

Dr Alena Gadoury

Alena brings a wealth of experience across human and animal medicine, business, mentoring, training, and research. She began her career in healthcare, earning a Bachelor of Nursing in 2006 and working as a Registered Nurse in Adult Mental Health and Paediatrics. In 2013, she graduated with First Class Honours in Veterinary Science from the University of Sydney and gained diverse clinical experience in small animal, mixed, and emergency practice across Canada and Australia. 

In 2019, Alena joined the global veterinary community Vets: Stay, Go, Diversify as a co-founder of its "Down Under" branch. Her professional journey also includes roles as a National Sales Specialist with Provet VI and a Clinical Research Project Manager with QUT and Queensland Health. Currently, Alena provides compassionate end-of-life care for pets, balancing this with her impactful research and advocacy work.  

Driven by lived experiences with mental health challenges and suicide, Alena is dedicated to improving suicide prevention within the veterinary profession. She co-founded VetHerd, a suicide prevention program for the veterinary community, and is a certified LivingWorks safeTALK and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) instructor. Alena is currently completing a PhD at Griffith University's School of Applied Psychology, focusing on understanding suicidality and suicide prevention among Australian veterinarians.

 

Carly Webster

Carly is a highly skilled workplace mental health specialist with extensive experience in the strategic development and execution of health and wellbeing initiatives across a range of industries with workplaces of varied sizes. She has worked in health, safety, and wellbeing for over 12 years and has expertise in practically applying Behavioural Science and Motivational Interactions within organisations. 

Carly partners with organisations to collaboratively identify, implement and evaluate customer-centric, evidence-based programs focused on creating psychologically safe and healthy environments.  

 

Dr Jodie Wilson

What do you get when you combine ASD, ADHD, acquired physical disability, an award-winning veterinary career, a master’s degree in Positive Psychology, insatiable curiosity, and a complete disregard for contextual knowledge boundaries? You get dedicated disruptive influence, author, speaker, and La Trobe University Autism Researcher, Dr Jodie Wilson. Jodie describes herself as a talented overthinker who can talk underwater. She's a fan of explicit communication, and thinks unexamined social rules are stupid. 

 

Cat Walker

AMDRAS, RVN, Cert IV VN, BA(Hons)(International Studies), LLB, Grad Dip (Legal Practice). Cat Walker is a Registered Veterinary Nurse, Lawyer, Mediator, and International Speaker with a wealth of experience in the veterinary sector. Cat has owned and managed general practice and emergency hospitals and currently helps veterinary teams to maximise patient outcomes by navigating conflict using evidence-based strategies grounded in conflict theory and neuroscience. 

 

Dr Richard Read

Rick is in his 50th year as a registered veterinarian and is a life member of the AVA.  Most of his veterinary career was spent in small animal surgical academic practice at Murdoch University.  

In 2011 Rick moved to the healthcare industry and from 2015-2021 helped create the Centre for Wellbeing and Sustainable Practice at Royal Perth Hospital. In 2017 he was appointed to the position of Junior Doctors’ Wellbeing Officer and established a peer group program for junior doctors.  He now shares his learning from that experience whenever he gets an invitation! 

 

Dr Haidee Gray

Haidee (pronounced Heidi) is a vet, clinical coder, and PhD candidate. Her PhD research explores how to keep staff in vet clinics, with a niche focus of employee voice and leader responsiveness. She has a particular interest in the balance between the individual and organisational responsibility for a happy workplace.  

Having worked in clinical practice for 20 years, Haidee brings a wealth of knowledge and lived experience to her research.  She envisions a veterinary profession sustainably staffed with fulfilled, healthy and contented people and hopes to contribute to this through her research, presentations and collaborations.  

This event reinforces the AVA’s commitment to support veterinary teams to thrive throughout their career. We look forward to welcoming you.  

Reserve your place now as spaces are limited! THRIVE Veterinary Wellness Symposium proudly supported by Hill’s pet nutrition and Provet 

Dr Rebecca Faris - AVA Executive Officer Wellness