Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Are you asking me if I'm familiar with this?

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I haven't had any patients, luckily, who have done that, but yes, I have certainly heard of situations in which that's happened. I've actually had patients who have told me that was their plan, because we do ask what they will do if they are not found eligible. I think it's a di

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Okay. When someone makes a request for MAID, it can be done in an informal way or often through, as we have in Ontario, a central intake. That's how we get the referrals. I contact them directly by phone and set up an appointment to come to their home. At that point, I ask for c

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  There are multiple ways of gathering information. As I said, I usually have access to health records through the hospital system. I would often contact the care providers they are already seeing—a family doctor or a specialist. If I continue to be uncertain about things, then I m

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Most often it's hours. Sometimes it's months. I had one patient whose assessment I was spending a fair amount of time on, probably five to 10 hours a week, and supporting him through his journey for almost three months.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Absolutely not.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Of course I do not agree with that. We are health professionals. We take all our data collection very seriously and responsibly.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Just to clarify, I was already working within the field of MAID before my mother had her assisted death, but yes, I did support her through that. I'm not quite sure what you mean by the “rigorous process”. I think you're asking what steps are involved in assessing someone for MA

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  For a start, you could look at how institutions are able to establish these policies. As I understand it, Prince Edward Island has actually passed legislation that prohibits institutions from preventing MAID in their organizations. I did hear a bit of the previous presenter, Dr

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  A year ago, I and a colleague led a very strong advocacy program in order to be able to have funding allocated specifically for us here in Niagara, so we do now have funding, but it's just us. It's not throughout the province.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Correct.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I am a nurse practitioner, and nurse practitioners are qualified to be able to provide MAID. Any MAID practitioner wants to do training for sure, and there are programs that are actually in process now and being developed, as I understand. When I trained four years ago, it was a

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Yes. That's true in some institutions for certain, and actually in some communities as well. I can speak mostly to my own community, in which palliative care is quite available. The people here get very high-quality palliative care, but they are not always offered the opportunity

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Quite honestly, it's not one that I have had to deal with or have given a lot of thought to. I do believe that age as a cut-off is a number and can be arbitrary. There is concern, for sure, in terms of people having to achieve a certain criteria that may be arbitrary in order to

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Much of the limitations here in Niagara actually have to do with health human resources and providers who are willing to do the work. It's not currently a funding problem. It was when I first started working. As I said, I provided MAID services for three years without any financi