Consultation-liaison psychiatry and physician-assisted death.

OBJECTIVE

Consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrists are involved in physician-assisted death (PAD) teams in many permitting jurisdictions. This paper will describe our Canadian PAD experience over 2 years, highlighting the role of C-L psychiatrists, at a large hospital network that provides medical assistance in dying (MAID, as this is called in Canada).

METHODS

We will describe the Canadian criteria for MAID, our multispecialty MAID team experience and the roles, issues and concerns experienced by C-L psychiatrists. Some brief patient examples will be provided.

RESULTS

Our MAID team has managed 186 MAID inquiries, assessed 95 MAID requests and provided 49 MAID interventions over a 24 month period. The 2 co-leaders of the MAID team, 8 assessors and 1 intervention physician are C-L psychiatrists. Each of the MAID criteria: grievous medical condition, advanced state of irreversible decline, intolerable suffering, natural death reasonably foreseeable, voluntary request, capacity and informed consent pose specific challenges to be resolved in the assessment. Several unique MAID issues, including the role of education and mandatory psychiatric assessment and protocols will also be discussed.

CONCLUSIONS

Our experience shows that C-L psychiatrists are well-situated to provide vital expertise and leadership to multispecialty PAD teams.