Specially trained voluntary assisted dying care navigators have greatly improved access to assisted dying in Victoria, a patient experience study by QUT Australian Health Law Research Centre has found.
- Despite barriers to access, participants reported a specially trained facilitator smoothed the process
- Call for telehealth consultations, especially for patients in regional areas
- Call for doctors to be obligated to refer on a patient to a willing and VAD traineddoctor, if the doctor or facility has an objection to VAD
The study is published in the Medical Journal of Australia today.
The study team, pictured above from left, Ruthie Jeanneret, Professor Ben White,Professor Lindy Willmott and Dr Eliana Close all from QUT, interviewed 32 family caregivers and a patient about the features that helped or hindered their access to voluntary assisted dying (VAD).
“We conducted the study to shed light on people’s experiences seeking an assisted death as, until now, research had centred on doctors’ early VAD experience after Victoria became the first state to have VAD in 2019,” Professor White said.
“A major finding was the high praise and gratitude expressed towards VAD Care Navigators. As one participant said:
“All the way through I’ve been in contact with the navigators. Without them this could not happen… I knew the whole process. I was familiar with everything … I could not have done it without them.”
“We found the main barriers patients encounter are:
- finding trained and willing doctors to assess their eligibility, including a doctor who specialises in the person’s condition.
- objections to VAD from hospitals, aged care and other health facilities who block assessment or access to VAD medication.
- the time it took to go through the application process when time was of the essence for people in pain and whose death was near.
- a prohibition on VAD telehealth consultations had caused pain, distress and considerable hardship, especially for patients who lived in regional areas and had to travel long distances to VAD assessment appointments.
- doctors not being allowed to initiate VAD conversations.”
QUT PhD researcher Ruthie Jeanneret said the study found that patients felt well-supported once they had made contact with the system through a willing doctor or a VAD Care Navigator.
“From this study we make several recommendations to continue improving the VAD process for patients,” Ms Jeanneret said.
“These are:
- make it a priority to ensure more widely available information can enable patients to make earlier contact with the VAD system through eg VAD Care Navigators.
- increase the pool of willing and qualified doctors involved in VAD with support to undertake the required VAD training and adequate remuneration.
