Overview
In order to serve our communities holistically, social workers must understand the importance of animals in the lives of our clients. To do so, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville created and launched the Veterinary Social Work Certificate Program. The overarching goal of the Veterinary Social Work Certificate is to increase the number of social workers who have knowledge about human-animal interaction, and increase skills in animal-assisted interaction, and direct practice within grief & loss, and the link between interpersonal violence and animal abuse. The certificate in Veterinary Social work is seen as similar to other certificates in the MSSA curriculum such as school social work. The model of the certificate is flexible and can be adapted easily to the curriculum and requirements.