Content warning: this episode of The Checkup discusses highly sensitive topics, including death and suicide. If you find this episode triggering, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

The evolving landscape of voluntary assisted dying (VAD) presents significant ethical and legal challenges for healthcare professionals in Australia. Understanding these complexities is crucial for ensuring compliance with current legislation while providing compassionate and effective care.

In this episode of The Checkup, BN’s Samantha Pillay and Demi Peters delve into the complex world of VAD with returning guest, Dr Ruthie Jeanneret, a lecturer at The University of Queensland, School of Medicine and TC Beirne School of Law. Ruthie completed her PhD thesis at QUT’s Australian Centre for Health Law Research, which investigated patients' and family caregivers' perspectives and experiences of VAD regulation in Australia and Canada. She has been involved in writing the VAD mandatory training for participating practitioners in Queensland, Western Australia, and Victoria.

Together, they discuss the evolving regulatory framework, ethical dilemmas faced by healthcare providers, and practical implications of VAD in clinical practice.

Key questions considered in this episode include:

This episode provides valuable insights for healthcare professionals grappling with the complexities of VAD, helping them uphold their legal and ethical responsibilities in this sensitive area of practice.

This episode of The Checkup was edited by Audio Advantage.

The legalisation of medicinal cannabis has opened new treatment pathways for patients across Australia, but it also presents complex regulatory and legal challenges for healthcare professionals. Navigating these intricacies is essential to ensure compliance with evolving legislation while delivering safe and effective care.

In this episode of The Checkup, BN’s Lee Lenkinski and Joshua Scott explore the legal landscape of medicinal cannabis in Australia. They discuss the regulatory framework governing its prescription and supply, the professional responsibilities of healthcare providers, and cases where practitioners have faced scrutiny for non-compliance.

Key questions considered in this episode include:

This episode provides valuable insights for healthcare professionals navigating the complexities of medicinal cannabis, helping them uphold their legal and ethical responsibilities in this evolving area of practice.

This episode of The Checkup was recorded and edited by Audio Advantage.

Further reading and references:

Content warning: this episode of The Checkup discusses highly sensitive topics, including sexual assault. If you find this episode triggering, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Healthcare professionals are entrusted with the wellbeing of their patients, a relationship that carries an inherent power imbalance. Maintaining professional boundaries is critical, yet challenging, as overstepping these boundaries can have serious repercussions for both practitioners and patients.

In this episode of The Checkup, BN’s Emma Baker and Tyler Lim delve into the complex issue of boundary violations in healthcare. They explore the expectations placed on healthcare professionals to uphold these boundaries and examine recent cases where practitioners have been sanctioned for transgressions, such as inappropriate relationships with patients and inadequate consent during intimate examinations.

In this discussion, they consider the professional obligations around maintaining appropriate boundaries, the legal frameworks that guide these expectations, and the implications of boundary violations. Key questions considered in this episode include:

• What constitutes a professional boundary violation in healthcare?

This episode serves as a vital reminder for healthcare professionals to remain vigilant about their interactions with patients, ensuring they maintain the trust placed in them by adhering to ethical and professional standards.

This episode of The Checkup was recorded and edited by Audio Advantage.

Content warning: this episode of The Checkup discusses highly sensitive topics, including vicarious trauma and psychological harm. If you find this episode triggering, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

As legal professionals, we might find ourselves navigating emotionally challenging subject matters, graphic material or cases that involve emotionally charged parties. This can, in some instances, lead professionals to encounter 'vicarious trauma,' a phenomenon often experienced in high-stress industries such as law or healthcare at various stages of one's career.

In this episode of The Checkup, BN’s Natalie Laidlaw and Ashlee Sherman talk to Sally Ryan and Carly Schrever; psychologists and the directors of Human Ethos, about the complexities of vicarious trauma, empathy-based stress, burnout and compassion fatigue in the workplace. Together, they explore how we can recognise the symptoms of stress, both in ourselves and our colleagues, as well as some strategies to effectively manage and prevent vicarious trauma.

In their discussion, they consider the following questions:

• What is vicarious trauma?

This episode of The Checkup was recorded by Pughouse Studios and edited by Audio Advantage.

Content warning: this episode of The Checkup discusses highly sensitive topics, including death and suicide. If you find this episode triggering, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

• What is conscientious objection and how does it apply to practitioners who object to VAD practices? 

Relevant links:

• LexisNexis quick reference card

Music by ComaStudio from Pixabay.

Content warning: this episode of The Checkup discusses highly sensitive topics involving children so listener discretion is advised. 

Who makes the decision when it comes to withdrawing a patient's life support? The recent UK case of Archie Battersbee has brought to light the challenging issues courts consider when intervening in cases relating to withdrawal of life support.

When these tragic and highly emotional matters arise, they involve the patients, families, hospitals, and clinicians. So with many parties involved and many factors to consider, how do the courts make their determination? 

In this episode of The Checkup, BN health law experts, Samantha Pillay and Lisa Fairley, examine the tragic story of Archie Battersbee and the laws around withdrawing life support. They discuss similar cases in the UK and Australia, what the courts take into account when making these types of decisions, and the exceptional case in Queensland for adult patients without capacity.

In their discussion, Sam and Lisa consider the following questions: 

• When will the courts intervene?

Relevant links:

• ABC Law Report - Life, death and the law

This episode of The Checkup was edited by Audio Advantage.

Content warning: this episode of The Checkup discusses highly sensitive topics, including death and suicide. If you find this episode triggering, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

In Australia, criminal law prohibits active voluntary euthanasia, however Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation has been introduced and/or passed in various states, making it accessible for persons who meet a certain criteria. The intersection of criminal law and new end-of-life legislation raises a few questions:

• What will we see change across the healthcare industry?

In this episode of The Checkup, BN’s Milyka McCutcheon unpacks these questions alongside Dr Katrine Del Villar, a health law researcher at Queensland University of Technology. Together, they also discuss a 2018 criminal prosecution involving the assisted death of a terminally ill woman, and how the application of today’s end-of-life legislation might have resulted in a different outcome.

This episode of The Checkup was editing by Audio Advantage.

Understandably, the thought of being contacted by the Health Complaints Commissioner (HCC) following a complaint can be stressful for practitioners and health service providers. However, in many cases, this is usually a result of a lack of understanding of the HCC's processes. In this episode of The Checkup, BN's Scott Shelly is joined by Felicity Lathrop, Resolutions Manager for the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria, to uncover the role of the HCC in the complaints resolution process, and hopefully relieve some of the anxiety practitioners and health service providers often feel when dealing with the HCC. Felicity walks us through a day in her life as Resolutions Manager, some of the recurring issues she sees amongst complaints, as well as some tips for health service providers to avoid receiving complaints and for advisers to better manage complaints.

Most people will be familiar with the very public rise and fall of Britney Spears - from pop princess to a young mother tormented by the paparazzi, and the toll this inevitably took on her mental health which played out publicly for the world to see. However, in recent years, Britney has hit headlines for unexpected reasons. It's come to light that she has been the subject of a conservatorship since 2008, with her father appointed as her conservator and therefore responsible for making all personal and financial decisions on Britney's behalf. 13 years later, and after numerous court hearings, on 13 August 2021, Britney's father agreed to step down as conservator.

So, why was it so hard for Britney to have a say in who controlled her own personal and financial decisions? Why was the independence to make decisions taken away in the first place? And why has this lasted 13 years? Her situation raises the question - could this (or does this) happen in Australia?

In this episode of The Checkup, BN's Sam Pillay, Milyka McCutcheon and Lisa Fairley explore Britney's 13 year (and counting) legal battle, and unpack how Britney's situation would apply if she lived in Australia.