How to Obtain a Veterinary Social Work Certificate

Interested in becoming a veterinary social worker? Sandra Brackenridge, LCSW, a veterinary social work consultant, explains how to get started.

“How does one get a veterinary social work certificate? The program that I recommend most highly is the certificate program at the University of Tennessee School of Social Work, which is operated in conjunction with the veterinary school and the school of social work. Dr. Elizabeth Strand began that program and coined the term 'veterinary social work' in 2002. And she has a number of people helping her now.

And so if you get your master's in social work, online or in person through the University of Tennessee, you can do this certificate program at the same time or they also offer a post-masters certificate program which is all online except that there is an in-person component that you spend a week at the University of Tennessee. And then there is a kind of practice component, which is a Capstone Project. And there is also a requirement of I believe—I don't remember how many hours, I want to say 250— in a setting that is considered veterinary social work. So it's kind of an internship but it is experience.”