That's a great point.
We actually said, when MAID was initially coming along, that there needed to be a national education campaign on palliative care, helping people understand what palliative care is, but then also what MAID is too, so that the public would be aware that this was actually available, which could help us reduce the risk of coercion. If the public knows that it's available, then they ask us. Right now we rely on them making a suggestion that there's something...or that life is intolerable, and then we will say, “You know that this is legal,” and we discuss it further.
With palliative care, patients are still afraid to this day that we're going to get involved and that they're going to die sooner. We try to reassure people that we actually discharge people from our program all the time. People will come on our program. We'll help them address their physical symptoms, help them start working through some of their psychosocial issues, and help make sure they have addressed things such as advance care directives and things like that.
If they're doing really well, then we step back and they continue on with their primary care people, plus their oncologist or whomever. Then we're able to get involved again when necessary. Reaffirming that with patients and families helps to reassure them that we're not there for just the last days and hours of life.