Workshop: End of Life Law for Clinicians

A selection of pre-conference workshops will be held through the 2021 NAHC Online Platform on Monday 9th August. 

Workshops are an additional expense and are open to both conference delegates and non-conference delegates.

Places are limited and bookings will be taken on a first come – first served basis.

End of Life Law for Clinicians Workshop

Workshop Presenters: Professor Ben White, Professor Lindy Willmott, Ms Penny Neller, Dr Rachel Feeney

Date: Monday 9 August

Time: 1230-1430

Overview:
Allied health professionals have a significant role in caring for and supporting individuals at the end of life, and their families. In this context they play important legal roles such as determining whether a person has capacity for medical treatment decision-making, supporting a person to undertake Advance Care Planning, or identifying who is a person’s substitute decision-maker.

End of life law focuses on legal issues that are relevant to end of life decision-making. End of life law can be complex. The law that applies may differ depending on whether or not a person has capacity, and whether the person is an adult or a child. The law also differs across Australia.

Though research has revealed knowledge gaps about end of life law amongst Australian allied health professionals, it has also shown that they believe law has a place in clinical practice and decision-making; and want to learn more about the law.

This workshop is based on work emerging from an Australian federally funded project “End of Life Law for Clinicians” (ELLC). ELLC is a free training program for allied health professionals about the law relating to end of life decision-making.

This interactive workshop will use a case study format to explore some of the legal issues that can arise in practice for allied health professionals, and the role law plays in end of life care. Legal topics may include capacity and consent to treatment, Advance Care Planning and Advance Care Directives, substitute decision-making, futile or non-beneficial treatment, and managing conflict.

Knowledge of end of life law can enhance allied health professionals’ capacity to manage legal issues in end of life decision-making, leading to improved quality of care and practice.

Ben White is a Professor in the Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology. His research focuses on end-of-life decision-making. He is currently undertaking a program of funded research examining end-of-life law, policy and practice through a series of Australian Research Council and NHMRC grants. In late 2019 Ben was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship to investigate enhancing end-of-life care through a new and holistic regulatory framework. Ben is an editor of the text Health Law in Australia and an author of the website End of Life Law in Australia. In 2019 Ben and colleagues launched the End of Life Law for Clinicians training program.

Lindy Willmott is a Professor in the Faculty of Business and Law at Queensland University of Technology. She researches extensively in the health law field, particularly at the end of life. She has co-authored multiple texts as well as the End of Life Law in Australia website, and is involved in empirical research projects funded by the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. Lindy co-leads the End of Life Law for Clinicians training program, and projects funded by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services and the Western Australian Department of Health to provide legal training to health practitioners on voluntary assisted dying.

Penny Neller is a Project Coordinator, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology. She coordinates two Commonwealth palliative care projects: the End of Life Law for Clinicians training program, and the End of Life Directions for Aged Care Legal Toolkit. She is also a co-author of the End of Life Law in Australia website.

Rachel Feeney is Senior Research Assistant for the End of Life Law for Clinicians training program. She also works on end-of-life decision-making research as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology. Rachel has a background in speech pathology and multidisciplinary health research. Her clinical experience includes work in palliative care, oncology, intensive care, geriatrics, and paediatrics.