When you move into an aged care facility as a permanent resident, Commonwealth legislation classifies this as your own home. You have the same rights in your home in the aged care facility as you do in your previous home. It may be a house, a unit or a room; but it is still your own home.
In your own home you are responsible for managing your own medical care. You can choose your own doctor and decide which services and treatments you wish to receive.
Your aged care facility may be managed by a private organisation, a public company, a community organisation or a religious organisation. The religious organisation may have policies which oppose Voluntary Assisted Dying. If you request the aged care facility to provide your medical services, and if the institution opposes VAD, those medical services are unlikely to support you through the VAD assessment process. In that case, you are free to choose different medical services.
Under Commonwealth law, if you are a permanent resident, the institution is not permitted to stop you seeking your own VAD informed medical services.
The VAD Act in South Australia allows for institutions to have a conscientious objection to VAD, but this mainly applies to private hospitals where the person is a short term, non permanent resident. Even with an institutional conscientious objection, the facility must facilitate a person’s request for VAD. This may mean travelling offsite for consultations, but not if it would be detrimental to your health or be financially prohibitive.
An aged care facility may indicate that VAD is not permitted on their premises. But as a permanent resident, you are able to manage your own health care and seek your own medical treatment.
The SA VAD Care Navigators can support you through the VAD process regardless of where you live and assist you in finding a VAD trained doctor.
The South Australian Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service can be contacted by phone or email.
Email: [email protected]
Phone:0403 087 390
For further reading, Go Gentle Australia published a report on their findings in relation to access to VAD in aged care in Australia. Read here.