Barwon voluntary assisted dying navigator fields hundreds of inquiries

Geelong health services have detailed the level of interest shown in voluntary assisted dying since it became legal just over three years ago.

MORE than 200 people have contacted the Geelong region support service for voluntary assisted dying.

Victoria has established what it describes as a “navigator” service to offer specialised advice around the issue to individuals and medical staff. As of June, the state had nine navigators.

“There has been a steady increase in the number of people contacting the Barwon region navigator, with more than 200 people making contact in the past three years,” Barwon Health spokeswoman Kate Bibby said.

Ms Bibby said the multidisciplinary navigator team included nurses, social workers and a psychologist offering advice to anyone considering voluntary assisted dying.

According to the recently released Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board annual report, 1425 people were assessed for eligibility between June 2019 – when it became legal in Victoria – and June 30 this year,

There were 1035 permits issued and 604 permit-holders died from taking the prescribed substance.

The median age of applicants was 73 and half of all applicants were aged 65 to 81.

More than one third (37 per cent) of applicants lived in regional Victoria, where only 22 per cent of the Victorian population live, the report said.

There were 302 medical practitioners with active profiles in the Voluntary Assisted Dying Portal,a secure online system for medicos to lodge the forms required.

Practitioners in regional Victoria were concentrated around areas including Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula, the report said.

Ms Bibby said people from regional and rural areas could sometimes face challenges in accessing practitioners who had the requisite specific training.

“Palliative care and advance-care planning remain important services and our service is focused on safe, high-quality, person-centred end-of-life care at all times and includes the option of voluntary assisted dying for any eligible individuals,” she said.

“Those individuals who pursue the voluntary assisted dying pathway, together with their families, have expressed peace of mind and gratitude for the assistance given and for the choice the (Voluntary Assisted Dying) Act provides.”

Local GP and Western Victoria Primary Health Network clinical spokeswoman Dr Anne Stephenson said voluntary assisted dying involved an eligible patient choosing to take, or have administered, a life-ending medication prescribed by an approved medical practitioner.

“Since (it) became legal, the potential to access the procedure has become more widely

known and patients have felt more comfortable raising the issue with their GP,” she said.

“Doctors are not allowed to undertake voluntary assisted dying without completing the required training, which gives the medical practitioner the necessary core knowledge and competencies.”

Counsellor Kenneth Ralph

According to the Victorian health department, voluntary assisted dying was for adults suffering from an incurable, advanced and progressive medical condition and experiencing intolerable suffering.

The condition must be confirmed by two medical practitioners to be expected to cause death within six months, the department states.

There was an exception for a person suffering from a neurodegenerative condition, where instead the condition must be expected to cause death within 12 months, it said.

Geelong 86-year-old Kenneth Ralph, a former clergyman and recently retired counsellor, had been advocating for voluntary assisted dying since the 1980s.

He said voluntary assisted dying becoming legal had been an “enormous relief” for people and was “a long time overdue”.

Originally published as Barwon voluntary assisted dying navigator fields hundreds of inquiries