Dr Jackie Campbell

Dr Jackie Campbell (2006 graduate) is the founder and director of Sunset Home Veterinary Care http://www.sunsetvets.com.au/, an innovative new service model for the veterinary industry. Her practice is one of Australia’s first specialised palliative care services, delivering individualised in-home veterinary care to pets in need.

After graduation from UQ, Dr Campbell worked in clinical veterinary roles throughout Queensland and became interested in some of the complex issues around the idea of pet ‘ownership’ and what happens when the capacity to care does not equate with ‘best care’.  In 2014, Dr Campbell created a platform for vets to provide a mobile service targeted at supporting ageing or terminal pets to receive care in the home. Central to this idea was the implementation of better emotional support for carers from the commencement of treatment right the way through to the euthanasia appointment and beyond.  In February this year, Jackie was invited to speak at TedxSouthbank about her work in the palliative care field. Her talk, ‘Rethinking the way we say goodbye’ was designed to encourage open discussion around the topic of pet loss and asks us all to think about what’s important for our pets at the end of their life – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5aAJGN_RHs.

Dr Campbell also works in a voluntary capacity as South East Queensland’s clinical coordinator for Pets in the Park (PITP), an Australian charity that supports, builds relationships with and improves the well-being of homeless people living with animal companions in our society. PITP achieves their objectives by operating free monthly ‘pop up’ pet health clinics, to assist people struggling with homelessness care for their much loved pets – www.petsinthepark.org.au.   A key to the PITP model is partnering with human service providers to encourage a cross-discipline approach in improving the lives of the homeless people as well as their pets. Currently the PITP Brisbane team work closely with referral partners including: The Salvation Army Street Level Mission, Footprints, Micah projects, Big Issue, and the AAROS Community Living Centre.

Jackie with Jake the dog