Research Consultant, Melbourne City Mission Emeritus Professor of Nursing, Monash University, Melbourne.
Chief Executive Officer, Peninsula Home Hospice, Mornington Manager, Palliative Care Service, Melbourne City Mission (formerly).
Int J Palliat Nurs. 2020 Dec 2;26(8):425-430. doi: 10.12968/ijpn.2020.26.8.425.
Staff working in community palliative care services are accustomed to the intimate conversations that a patient being at home can engender. Being at home can provide a safe space for a patient to express difficulties, including expressing a desire for hastened death. With the implementation of voluntary assisted dying in Victoria in mid-2019, palliative care services have needed to review and adapt policies and practices to incorporate this new procedure. While it was anticipated that a small percentage of people would request access to voluntary assisted dying, in the wake of such significant change, there were numerous implications for palliative care services to consider. This paper describes both the organisational and individual changes undertaken by one community-based palliative care service, in anticipation of legalised assistance in dying. The range of responses to the issues raised are discussed, in preparation for, and in the early days of, voluntary assisted dying.
在社区姑息治疗服务机构工作的员工习惯于在家中与患者进行亲密的交谈。在家中可以为患者提供一个安全的空间来表达困难，包括表达对加速死亡的渴望。随着 2019 年维多利亚州自愿协助死亡的实施，姑息治疗服务机构需要审查和调整政策和实践，以纳入这一新程序。虽然预计只有一小部分人会要求获得自愿协助死亡，但在如此重大的变革之后，姑息治疗服务机构需要考虑许多问题。本文描述了一家社区姑息治疗服务机构在预期合法协助死亡之前所进行的组织和个人变革。讨论了对所提出问题的各种回应，为自愿协助死亡做准备，并在早期阶段进行了讨论。
