I have been trying to do catch up with my education hours since I haven't decided if I am going to retire or not. I have worked for most of my life so this is a tough decision. I’ll figure it out and if I don’t, I may just keep working.
My staged house is gone and my own things are back, some broken, some damaged and that will all be discussion for a topic on another day so you become aware. The experience of trying to sell a house this time as been an eye opener.
What I want to talk about today is a webinar I attended last week. I was supposed to get slides which didn’t happen and is quite annoying. However, it would not be the host’s fault. I have provided you with information before and so this will be an update.
When Assistant Dying started in Canada, I was horrified and wanted no part of it. For the first two years of my career “Do no harm” was my motto. For years I have dealt with suicidal ideation. Some began as children. They didn’t really want to kill themselves and were crying out for help, though the thought was always there. I began to realize that I am only human, and if it were to happen it would be beyond my control. I knew that statistically before MAID, when people tried to commit suicide and failed, they felt differently. They no longer wanted to die. So, when MAID was introduced to me at a full day conference at a hospital, I saw division among the entire medical field. I still remember a woman sitting beside me complaining of a noted physician that she was opposed to MAID. She asked me what I thought and I told her I agreed with this infamous physician. She got up in disgust and sat somewhere else as far from me as possible. Since then, no one has ever asked me to accompany them through this process. Usually people wanting suicide or thinking about it keep it as a secret and the first thing I do is encourage them to tell a parent or trusted friend. Then with therapy and them finding a support group, they usually feel better about themselves. However, after much struggle, I decided that this is not about me, it is about them and their choices. As therapists, we always have to be aware of our biases so we can work through it for the benefit of the client. MAID is something I try to keep up with so I was surprised at the update. I learned that about nine out of ten patients who had wanted MAID changed their minds when they were shown that they were cared for and this became a focus. Their psycho-spiritual care was taken care of. This made me think of that article I read, about the Catholic Bronx hospital that had every patient who wanted MAID change their minds because they were taken care of with compassion. You should find that somewhere in my blogs. That stuck with me, because even COMA patients felt they were cared for by nurses who talked to them. They were able to talk about his when they came out of their coma. You should find that here too. Patients now wanting MAID are asked three times during the final process if they want to go to the next phase, the final one being their death. Families are not informed if the patient doesn’t want them to be. What bothered me this time round is that two provinces in Canada are forcing all Physicians to perform this procedure even if it is against their religion, or moral compass. They simply do not have a choice and what is happening is physicians are leaving their professions as a result. Canada is now facing what I believe is a health care crises. We simply don’t have enough physicians which I have spoken to you about before. So, who is the genius that thought this is a good idea and promoted it? It would cause moral injury and/or trauma for a physician who believes in causing no harm to help a client die, if his/her perception is that this causes harm. So why is this happening? The other disturbing thing I learned is that they are working on having children as young as 12 making the decision to end their life, even without their parents approval. I have heard discussion before from physicians working with children that parents try to prolong their children’s lives, even when they probably shouldn’t and even the children are ready to die more than their parents are to have them go. My question was how many parents are going to leave the country if this law comes to effect? What is now happening when patients are provided with options of their treatment, MAID is included as an option. This arose because someone decided that if people don’t know about MAID, then this should be included. Now they wanted to include Mental Health Patients, but this has been delayed because of the uproar among Mental Health Providers. Note, I say delayed and not stopped. As they work on all this, the public is not notified ( I wonder why). I have to admit that the morning after this webinar, I had tears welling up as I thought about all this that I have written here. How far are we going to go? Why don’t we provide people with compassionate care? The research is there, why not act on it? If you remember in an earlier blog I wrote about American Insurance companies covering MAID, but not all the treatments the patient requires. Money!!
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