Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond were down 16% Tuesday morning. The sharp drop followed the death of the company's chief financial officer.

Gustavo Arnal was found unconscious and unresponsive Friday afternoon after reportedly plunging from a New York City high-rise apartment building. The New York Medical Examiner will determine a cause of death, but foul play is not suspected.

Bed Bath & Beyond said Amal was a talented leader.

"Gustavo will be remembered by all he worked with for his leadership, talent and stewardship of our Company. I am proud to have been his colleague, and he will be truly missed by all of us at Bed Bath & Beyond and everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him," said Harriet Edelman, Independent Chair of the Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Board of Directors.

Arnal's death came two days after the company announced it would be laying off employees and closing some stores following a decline in sales.

The retailer said it would be reducing its workforce by about 20% and closing about 150 "low-producing" stores.

The retailer reported a 26% drop in sales compared to the second quarter of the 2021 fiscal year.

CNN reports Amal was accused in a lawsuit of a "pump and dump" scheme to inflate Bed Bath & Beyond's stock artificially.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s 988 hotline, intended to help anyone experiencing a mental health emergency, was back up and running Friday after a daylong outage.

The call service, which was launched in July, was restored shortly before midnight on Thursday. People experiencing a mental health crisis were still able to reach a mental health counselor by texting 988 or by visiting 988lifeline.org to start a chat.

The federal government is investigating the hotline's outage, Health and Human Services spokeswoman Sarah Lovenheim said in a tweet late Thursday night.

“While HHS and VA immediately acted to provide support to 988 callers via text, chat, and alternate numbers, the disruption of phone service was unacceptable, and HHS continues to investigate the root cause of the outage,” she tweeted, referencing the acronym for Veterans Affairs.

The 988 hotline is a national helpline staffed with mental health counselors around the country that’s designed to be as easy to remember as the emergency line, 911. Since its launch, the hotline has fielded roughly 8,000 phone calls a day from those seeking mental health help.

The telecommunications company Intrado, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest U.S. provider of e911 services and provides the backend plumbing for emergency communication services like the 988 helpline. The company did not return repeated requests for comment.

In a statement on Intrado's website on Thursday, the company said it was “working as quickly as possible to resume full service.” The outage also impacted the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Disaster Distress Helpline.

Telecoms analyst Roger Entner, of Recon Analytics, said he didn't think there was "anything malicious” in the outage.

“Stuff like this almost always happens when an upgrade goes wrong,” Entner said. Normally, these outages occur when “they try to improve or fix something small and they break something big. That’s the most likely answer here.”

The homicide rate for older U.S. teenagers rose to its highest point in nearly 25 years during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the suicide rate for adults in their early 20s was the worst in more than 50 years, government researchers said Thursday.Video above: COVID-19 pandemic increases awareness about youth suicideThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report examined the homicide and suicide rates among 10- to 24-year-olds from 2001 to 2021.The increase is alarming and "reflects a mental health crisis among young people and a need for a number of policy changes," said Dr. Steven Woolf, a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher who studies U.S. death trends and wasn't involved in the CDC report.Experts cited several possible reasons for the increases, including higher rates of depression, limited availability of mental health services and the number of guns in U.S. homes.Guns were used in 54% of suicides and 93% of homicides among the age group in 2021, the most recent year for which statistics were available."Picture a teenager sitting in their bedroom feeling desperate and making a decision, impulsively, to take their own life," Woolf said. If they have access to a gun, "it's game over."Suicide and homicide were the second and third leading causes of death for 10- to 24-year-olds, after a category of accidental deaths that included motor vehicle crashes, falls, drownings and overdoses. Other researchers have grouped the data by the method of death and concluded that guns are now the biggest killer of U.S. children.Earlier this year, Woolf and other researchers looking at CDC data noted dramatic increases in child and adolescent death rates overall at the beginning of the pandemic and found suicide and homicide were essential factors.The report also found:Suicide and homicide death rates remained far higher for older teenagers and young adults than they were for 10- to 14-year-olds.In 2021, there were about 2,900 suicides in youths ages 10 to 19, and 4,200 in 20- to 24-year-olds. About 3,000 homicide deaths were reported in the younger group, and nearly 3,900 in the adults in their early 20s.The homicide death rate jumped from 8.9 deaths per 100,000 teens aged 15 to 19 in 2019 to 12.3 in 2020. It rose to 12.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2021, the highest since 1997, according to CDC data.Homicide deaths became more common than suicide deaths among 15- to 19-year-olds, while suicide was more common in the younger and older age groups.While large increases were seen in homicide rates for young Black and Hispanic people in the U.S., there were no significant increases for their white counterparts, other CDC data shows.Among 20- to 24-year-olds, the homicide death rate jumped 34% from 2019 to 2020 — from 13.4 per 100,000 population to 18 per 100,000. It held stable in 2021, but the suicide rate rose enough in 2021 — to 19.4 per 100,000 — to surpass the homicide rate.Suicide death rates in children and teens were rising before COVID-19, but they jumped up at the beginning of the pandemic. Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, a psychiatrist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said the reasons may be hard to pinpoint, but that isolation during COVID-19 lockdowns could be a factor."There is a misperception that if you talk to young people about depression, they'll get depressed. A don't-ask, don't-tell policy for depression is not effective," Trivedi said. "The earlier we can identify the ones who need help, the better chance we'll have at saving lives."

An organization that is working to counter hate and disinformation online is raising concerns about the type of videos young people may be seeing on TikTok.

The Centers for Countering Digital Hate set out to test TikTok's algorithm after hearing concerns from parents about what their children are seeing on the platform. The nonprofit organization says it set up eight new accounts in the U.S., U.K, Canada and Australia, and listed the user as 13 years old, the youngest allowed by TikTok.

For the experiment, the accounts briefly watched and liked videos about body image and mental health.

"Within 2.6 minutes, TikTok recommended suicide content. Within 8 minutes, TikTok served content related to eating disorders. Every 39 seconds, TikTok recommended videos about body image and mental health to teens," the organization claims.

The Centers for Countering Digital Hate says some of the videos disclosed information about teens expressing the desire to attempt suicide. Other self-harm videos featured razor blades.

In a statement about the report, a spokesperson said the experiment does not reflect how regular people use the platform.

"This activity and resulting experience does not reflect genuine behavior or viewing experiences of real people," the spokesperson said. "We regularly consult with health experts, remove violations of our policies, and provide access to supportive resources for anyone in need. We're mindful that triggering content is unique to each individual and remain focused on fostering a safe and comfortable space for everyone, including people who choose to share their recovery journeys or educate others on these important topics."

TikTok's Community Guidelines state that it does not allow content "depicting, promoting, normalizing, or glorifying activities that could lead to suicide, self-harm, or disordered eating." It vowed to remove content cited in the report that violated its Community Guidelines.

While TikTok acknowledges it will not catch every piece of content that violates its guidelines, it says it has a team of more than 40,000 safety professionals who are responsible for helping keep the platform safe.

TikTok says from April to June of this year, more than 90% of content that violated policies for suicide and self-harm was removed before there was a single view.

Still, the Centers for Countering Digital Hate believes more should be done to protect teens from dangerous content. It created a guide for parents to help them understand the potential problems on TikTok. It's also pushing policymakers to force social media companies to be more transparent about their algorithms and economic incentives. In addition, the organization believes companies should be held accountable when they fail to enforce policies that are aimed at stopping harm.

TikTok launched what it calls an industry-leading Transparency Center two years ago. The company says it regularly publishes transparency reports to hold itself accountable.

Ted Kaczynski, known as the "Unabomber," who carried out a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died by suicide, four people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.Kaczynski, who was 81 and suffering from late-stage cancer, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday. Emergency responders performed CPR and revived him before he was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead later Saturday morning, the people told the AP.The people were not authorized to publicly discuss Kaczynski's death and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.Kaczynski's death comes as the federal Bureau of Prisons has faced increased scrutiny in the last several years following the death of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who also died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019.Kaczynski had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge. He admitted to committing 16 bombings between 1978 and 1995, permanently maiming several of his victims.

PARIS —

French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, a longtime associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been found dead in his prison cell, a spokesperson for the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Brunel was found alone, hanged with bedsheets, in his jail cell at the Santé prison in the French capital at around 1:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, the prosecutor's office told CNN. It would not comment on whether Brunel killed himself, adding an investigation into the cause of death has been opened, "as it is systematically done in these cases," entrusted to the French judicial police.

Brunel's French lawyers told CNN their client's "decision was not guided by guilt, but by a sense of injustice."

"Jean-Luc Brunel has never stopped claiming his innocence. He has multiplied his efforts to prove it. A judge had released him a few months ago, and then he was re-incarcerated in undignified conditions," a statement sent to CNN by his lawyers Mathias Chichportich, Marianne Abgrall and Christophe Ingrain read.

Accused of rape by several former top models, which he denied, the 75-year-old was put under formal investigation in France in late June 2021 for "rape of a minor over 15," the prosecutor's office confirmed.

Brunel was arrested at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in December 2020 on counts of "rape and sexual assault, rape and sexual assault on a minor under 15, rape and sexual assault on a minor over 15, sexual harassment, criminal associations and human trafficking to the detriment of minor victims for the purposes of sexual exploitation."

He was released under judicial supervision for a few days in November 2021, before being returned to prison by decision of the Paris Court of Appeals. He appealed the decision as the prosecution prepared its case.

Brunel's arrest was part of a probe launched in 2019 by French prosecutors, targeting "acts of sexual nature likely to have been committed by Jeffrey Epstein and possible accomplices," based on checks and cross-checks carried out on information provided to the Paris public prosecutor's office and exchanges with U.S. authorities.

Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in the United States on Aug. 10, 2019. He was awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, after pleaded not guilty to federal charges accusing him of operating a sex trafficking ring from 2002 to 2005 at his Manhattan mansion and his Palm Beach estate, and allegedly paying girls as young as 14 for sex.

A medical examiner ruled his death was suicide by hanging.

Brian Laundrie, who was found dead last month in a Florida swamp, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials announced Tuesday.Laundrie had been the subject of a manhunt for more than a month as investigators searched for clues in the slaying of his girlfriend, Gabby Petito, during their cross-country van trip together.The medical examiner in Sarasota County, where Laundrie's body was found, said in a news release that the cause of death was a gunshot wound, and the manner of death was suicide.Attorney Steve Bertolino, who represents Laundrie's parents, said in a statement that the family had been informed about the autopsy results."Chris and Roberta are still mourning the loss of their son and are hopeful that these findings bring closure to both families," Bertolino said.Found in a Florida nature preserve, Laundrie's skeletal remains were positively identified last month using dental records.The discovery of the remains concluded a massive search involving federal, state and local law enforcement that began shortly after Laundrie disappeared Sept. 14, two weeks after the 23-year-old returned alone to his parents' home in North Port, Florida.The investigation into Petito’s slaying, however, has not yet concluded. But only Laundrie was ever identified by law enforcement officials as a person of interest in the case.Petito’s family reported the 22-year-old woman missing Sept. 11, launching a search that garnered worldwide media attention and, in Laundrie’s case, focused largely on the Carlton Reserve wilderness park near the Laundrie home. It is a densely wooded, swampy area that’s home to alligators, coyotes, bobcats, snakes and numerous other creatures.Petito's remains were discovered Sept. 19 on the edge of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, one of the places the young couple had visited on the trip they documented through social media videos. Authorities said the body had been there for about a month.An autopsy in Wyoming concluded Petito died by strangulation and that it was a homicide. Laundrie was listed as a "person of interest" in her killing but he was charged only with fraudulent use of a debit card that was not his.Richard Stafford, attorney for Petito’s family, said they would have no immediate comment on Laundrie’s cause of death.

More than 700,000 people die by suicide each year, according to the World Health Organization.Translated: Every 40 seconds, someone in the world takes their own life. That's a sobering statistic to ponder today, on 2021's World Suicide Prevention Day.Suicide rates have been climbing for years in some parts of the world. In the United States alone, suicide rates have increased by 35% between 1999 and 2018. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls suicide a "growing public health problem."Experts fear suicidal thoughts may escalate due to economic hardship and mental stress caused by another lethal crisis facing the world — COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.Video above: Therapy visits are up as COVID-19 cases continue to climbA leading public health group estimated last year that as many as 75,000 Americans could die due to drug or alcohol misuse and suicide connected to the pandemic.President Joe Biden expressed his concern in a proclamation released Thursday announcing that Sept. 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day in the U.S."In 2019, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, and the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 34," Biden wrote."And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic compounded, for many, feelings of isolation, exhaustion, and economic and public health-related anxieties. Increased rates of depression have sparked concern that we will see a further increase in suicide rates."A study released in June further highlights those fears. The CDC found emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts started to increase in May 2020 among adolescents ages 12 to 17, especially girls."The mean weekly number of these visits was 26.2% higher during summer 2020 and 50.6% higher during winter 2021 compared with the corresponding periods in 2019," the CDC researchers wrote.Widespread riskAll ages, races and income levels are at risk, with 77% of all suicides occurring in lower- to middle-income countries, according to WHO. Globally, youth can be hardest hit: Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15- to 19-year-olds around the world, the agency said.And that's only part of the grim picture. For each person who has died by suicide, many more people think about or attempt suicide, according to the CDC. In 2019, 12 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.5 million planned a suicide attempt, and 1.4 million attempted suicide."If you or a loved one are thinking about suicide, please know that you are not alone and help is available 24/7 by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK or through the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741," Biden wrote."Next July, the new Mental Health Crisis Line 9-8-8 will take effect. By expanding the crisis line and investing in our Nation's crisis care infrastructure, we have the opportunity to prevent suicides and save lives," he continued.There are ways each of us can help prevent suicide. Here's how to do your part.Recognize distress signalsThere are many risk factors that can lead to an increase in thoughts about taking one's life. It's important to recognize these in yourself or a loved one, experts say, because many people do not talk about their thoughts of suicide in advance.Is there a history? People who have a mood, anxiety, alcohol or other substance use disorder, a major physical illness or a history of trauma, abuse or suicide in their family are at higher risk, according to the CDC.Was there a loss? A death in the family, the loss of a job or the loss of a relationship is a risk factor for suicidal behavior, especially if they feel isolated or alone without social support, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says.Economic distress is a reality facing millions who are out of work right now due to COVID-19-related job loss, social isolation or quarantine.Is there a belief system that honors personal sacrifice? People with religious or cultural attitudes that see suicide as a noble resolution of a personal dilemma are at higher risk, according to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline.Can they get a gun? Research has shown that easy access to firearms is also a key risk factor.Did the person survive a suicide attempt? Any previous suicide attempt is the single most important risk factor, according to the WHO. But there is also an odd "copycat" phenomena where suicides increase after local clusters of suicide or deaths of famous celebrities reported in the media. For example, deaths by suicide rose by 10% in the U.S. after comedian Robin Williams ended his life in 2014.Look for actionsAgain, not everyone will give their friends and loved ones verbal hints about their suicidal thoughts. That's why it's important to look at actions as well as words to recognize warning signs.According to the National Institute of Mental Health, be wary if your loved one:Increases their use of alcohol or drugs or starts to behave recklessly, such as driving while intoxicated or without a seat belt.Has extreme mood swings, from euphoria to the depths of depression or appears agitated, expresses rage or talks about seeking revenge.Sleeps too much or too little or withdraws or isolates from others.Appears to be in unbearable psychological pain or talks about being hopeless or a burden to friends or family, or talks about feeling trapped or having no reason to live.Begins to search online for ways to kill themselves, such as buying a gun or obtaining medical prescriptions.Begins to give away prized possessions or visits or calls to say goodbye.Be sure to regularly check on loved ones. During the pandemic families and friends are more isolated and alone and many warning signs may be tough to recognize. Listen carefully when you talk to them about to their concerns and observe how they are expressing themselves.If you are having suicidal thoughtsIf you live in the U.S. and are having suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 (800-273-TALK) for free and confidential support. It's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For crisis support in Spanish, call 888-628-9454.TrevorLifeline, a suicide prevention counseling service for the LGBTQ community, can be reached at 866-488-7386.Befrienders Worldwide connects users to the nearest emotional support center for the part of the world they live in.Crisis Text Line, which Biden mentioned, is an international service that provides a live, trained crisis counselor via a simple text for help. The first few responses will be automated until they get a counselor on the line — which typically takes less than five minutes.If you are in the U.S. or Canada, text 741741. If you are in the UK, text 85258 and those in Ireland can text 50808. The National Health Service also lists a variety of resources on its website.

HAMILTON, Ohio — Police are investigating after two people were found dead by gunshot wounds in a home early this morning in Hamilton, and information “points to murder-suicide as a possible explanation,” police said.

The two victims were found dead about 6:20 a.m. in the 1300 block of Hamel Drive, police said. The victims are believed to have suffered gunshot wounds, according to police.

Both victims were 90, according to a police report.

The investigation is ongoing and open, pending a coroner’s determination of the cause of death. But there is “no need for anyone to be alarmed in the neighborhood. The public is not in danger,” said Hamilton police officer Kristy Collins.

“The investigation is early and ongoing although investigators have discovered information that points to murder-suicide as a possible explanation,” Hamilton police said in a news release.

There were a number of heroes involved in the rescue of a suicidal teenager threatening to jump from a highway overpass in Flagler County, Florida, on Sunday, among them, an all-female negotiating team. Investigators got word that the girl didn't like men.So, several women in the department took over."I tried to talk to her about everything other than what was happening," Deputy Laura Jenkins said."It was a tap dance, it was a tap dance, we were just trying to find anything just to keep her talking," Deputy Crista Rainey said.Rainey and Jenkins were among a team that responded to a teenager in crisis. The 17-year-old, who has been previously Baker-Acted, left home, according to family, threatening self-harm. The Baker Act allows families, loved ones and professionals to provide emergency mental health services and temporary detention for people who are impaired because of their mental illness. First responders found her on the wrong side of the chain-link fence on an overpass."She did let go multiple times," Jenkins said."At least 15-20 times I would say, or guess," Rainey said.It wasn't easy, but Jenkins managed to get handcuffs on the distraught girl. Meanwhile, Rainey ran down to the now-closed interstate and jumped on a fire department ladder truck that was raised for the rescue. Rainey talked to the teen about her 7-month-old nephew, soothed and calmed her, then reached in and grabbed her."It was a little scary, but I think I was just more focused on getting her down," Rainey said."Once we got her down to the ground, we kind of all just fell on top of each other and just hugged for quite some time," Jenkins said.The teen was taken to the hospital. The deputies say they are proud to have been part of this life-saving effort. "Great feeling knowing that you could stop somebody who was so intent on doing that," Rainey said.In a timely coincidence, Flagler County just got word that its number one legislative funding priority, a quarter-million dollars for mental health help, survived the state budget process. Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly, reacting to the incident, put the spotlight on his deputies rather than himself. He says their training was obvious during the ordeal and says more attention must be paid to those in mental health crises.If you or someone you know is going through a crisis, you can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

Related video: Vets backlogged, weary from COVID pet boom

Madison Vollbracht says she burned out after five years working as a veterinary technician.

Her work was already grueling before the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the pandemic sparked a dramatic increase in pet adoptions, "COVID puppies and kittens," as Vollbracht calls them, as well as a rise in inquiries about pet care, which greatly increased the workload.

Also, the mandatory lockdowns forced many people out of work, which meant some owners could no longer afford care for their pets, and in some cases, had to surrender or euthanize them.

The effects of the pandemic took a toll on Vollbracht. The vet tech says she "had more anxiety and depression than joy from the job," even after changing clinics.

"There were a couple of days where everything was dying," she says. "And it was around Christmastime. It was my first Christmas working emergency and it also happened (during) the pandemic and I had only discharged one patient that day. Everything else had been euthanized. And that was my, 'I'm kind of done with this' day. I euthanized 16 patients that day."

That holiday season in 2020, she realized she'd had enough, and is now a veterinary assistant instructor at the Pima Medical Institute.

Approximately half of all vet techs burn out of the profession within their first five years and 35% of them burn out altogether.

Rise in adoptions strain veterinary clinics

Inquiries about pet adoptions increased 70% between March 2020 and March 2021, according to Petfinder.com spokeswoman Lorie Westhoff. And an ASPCA survey released in May 2021 shows that 90% of dogs and 85% of cats adopted during the pandemic were kept by their owners.

Millennials and Gen Zers are also adopting pets at higher rates than their predecessors, says Mark Cushing, a founding partner and the CEO of the Animal Policy Group. Because baby boomers are adopting fewer pets as they grow older, millennials and Gen Z adults now make up half of all pet owners, he says.

"Millennials, last year where they had or got one dog, they got two or had one dog and thought a cat might be fun," he says. "People who are into it, they know how much fun it is and want to have a playmate for their pet when they go back to work."

While an increase in pet adoptions is generally a good thing, it also means that veterinarians and vet techs have to see more patients, field more calls from pet owners, which sometimes result in delayed visits and care. Dr. Douglas Kratt, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, tells CNN that a recent AVMA survey found that the average number of patients a veterinarian saw per hour was 25% lower in 2020 than in prior years, which means clients are waiting longer before their animals can be seen.

"This has also resulted in an increase in client wait times — our current data indicate an average 20-minute wait in 2020, up from 11 minutes in 2019," Kratt says. "While the amount of time it takes to see each patient has increased, total veterinary visits in the United States do not appear to have gone up — according to national data compiled by the AVMA and VetSuccess, the number of veterinary visits in the United States was about the same in 2020 as compared with 2019."

That number has remained about the same not because fewer people are trying to see their veterinarians; rather, it's because there aren't enough veterinarians to meet client demand. Dr. Karl Jandrey, associate dean for Admissions and Student Programs at the University of California, Davis, who also practices as an emergency critical care specialist, says that people working from home means they're seeing problems with their pets that they wouldn't have normally noticed, leading to more calls with concern. It also means the shortage of veterinarians and vet techs has led to a need to stop taking new clients and squeezing others in.

"(You go from) not having enough prior — veterinarians and technicians — to even worse during the pandemic, where everyone else has to work harder and more," he says. "Instead of having your average emergency shift, one patient every half-hour, you now have four every hour you're trying to deliver care to. Something's gotta give, right?"

Where are all the vet techs?

Andrew Maccabe, CEO of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, says that applications to graduate veterinary medicine programs increased by 19% this past cycle compared to the previous year. But for veterinary technicians, the promise of an enriching career is not as apparent, despite only requiring two years of schooling, and even less in some states.

Jennifer Serling, president-elect of the Association of Veterinary Technician Educators, tells CNN that 35% of all vet techs eventually "burn out," while Cushing says that half of them leave the profession within five years. Vet tech educational retention is also down about five to 10%, Serling says, which she believes is "directly related to the pandemic."

Cushing says that inadequate pay often leads vet techs to leave the profession. On average, he says, veterinary technicians are paid $32,000 a year, which is "close to the poverty level" in some parts of the country. That can be as much as half the starting salary of a registered nurse in human medicine, Serling adds.

Vollbracht tells CNN her highest pay as a vet tech "started with a $16" per hour and there were times when there were more veterinarians in her clinic's emergency room floor than vet techs themselves.

"What started my burnout was really the money aspect and always being constrained with what we can do treatment-wise based on owners' financial situations," she says. "(I would go over) treatment plans and estimates with owners but (was) being constantly told 'no' or being belittled and berated for requiring such costs, in advance or at all, for certain things to be done and then not being able to do those things because they couldn't be afforded."

In addition to being underpaid, vet techs are also underutilized. Cushing says that half of vet technicians' learned skills are often ignored, leading to decreased morale as veterinarians' working dynamics with vet techs can be less delegated and collaborative than those in human hospitals and clinics.

"I'll say publicly, if you chronically underpay someone, they'll be looking to leave," he says.

"If you're trained to do it all and only do half, and you're told by a veterinarian, 'I'll do the rest,' you create a morale issue that is systemic across the profession."

Serling points out that vet techs, unlike RNs and physician assistants, are responsible for providing care to "multiple species that can't talk and tell us what's wrong." Unlike a hospital or a doctor's office, which has specialty nurses and assistants for everything, veterinary technicians are required to do it all, and then some.

"We have the same training as an RN," she says. "It's not just the same things as them but anesthesia, radiology, (etc.). We do a lot of the human components of medicine combined into multiple species, so utilizing us fully is a huge plus to the practice (of veterinary medicine)."

That ubiquitous involvement in end-of-life care, which is more specialized in human medicine, also takes its toll.

"It's both a blessing and a curse in that we can end our patients' suffering with euthanasia but that does weigh heavily on the individuals and can be incredibly mentally taxing," Serling says. "Early on, we get into this because it is a labor of love, not one we'll get rich at doing. You love your patients, love animals and want to help them. When you get that emotionally attached and driven into this field, that can also be mentally taxing as well."

Serling also points out that pet insurance is often not used, meaning that the expenses that hospitals and health care practices can largely bill to insurance companies have to be absorbed by the veterinary clinics, if not billed to the clients themselves.

"Until we're able to charge appropriately for the services we're providing, it's going to be difficult for clinics and some vets (to afford their expenses)," she says. "Veterinarian salaries and the cost of all that, even that is significantly less than their MD counterparts. There's a lot of catch-up to do so we're earning what we deserve."

How the field is trying to adapt

Maccabe says that one of the biggest causes for the perception, or reality, of a workforce shortage, is the inefficiencies caused by the pandemic. COVID-19 infection control procedures have slowed the ability of veterinarians and their health care teams to handle caseloads, and in a field that has long relied on direct, in-person care, it has caused extended waits on top of the added influx of pets.

On the educational side, Maccabe says that many virtual programs offering models and simulations for students to practice on have eased the burden the pandemic has placed on training future veterinarians. So, what are veterinary clinics doing? Some of them have adopted telehealth policies for visits in order to alleviate the burden caused by waiting for in-person care.

"With video conferencing available, even when people were taking their animals to clinics, they oftentimes had to drop the animal off, get a phone call or video call to see what the vet saw, right?" he says. "(For) how much of that did the animal need to be transported, whereas some could have been done at home? So that's where I think every crisis like (the pandemic) drives innovation."

Cushing says that veterinary medicine is a conservative field and that, on the whole, vets "don't welcome change." He says the field is about 25 years behind human medicine in terms of delegation of tasks and proper use of staff.

Some schools, such as Lincoln Memorial University, are starting to institute a middle ground master's degree, akin to a nurse practitioner, that would allow for positive movement up the ladder. Cushing says it would help vet techs who may still not want to attend or can't afford the schooling required to obtain a veterinary medicine degree to advance their careers.

The rewards aren't just financial for veterinary professionals. Private equity firms are investing more money into veterinary clinics, Cushing says, after seeing how lucrative the field is. In order for them to feel like they can get a proper return on their investments, they want to see additional outlets to prevent the staff they're invested in from burning out.

Serling says some of the improvements can take place in how clients approach their visits with veterinary staff.

"I think that owners do need to understand there are some incredible wait times right now," she says. "It can be difficult to get appointments. Usually, surgeries can be scheduled within a couple of weeks, so two months out is very unusual."

Generally speaking, though, Serling says revenue remains high enough that there should be enough money to go around to pay vet techs a higher salary.

"I think an increase in pay is the number one thing and I think technician utilization is the other," she says. "I think training veterinarians to utilize us and our education (is key). There's an AVMA study that says for every credentialed technician, they bring about a $90,000 to $100,000 increase in revenue per year. So utilizing us to the best of our ability (would change things)."

Maccabe says that despite the stresses of the pandemic, he believes necessary changes and progress in the field are on the horizon.

"I'm very optimistic about the future," he says. "I think that as challenging as this last year and a half has been, not just for our community but society in general, ... it has driven some changes to have a long-lasting impact to improve quality of teaching, care, and access in a way that might have been delayed or postponed for many years if not for this pandemic."