Not to be daunted by the Covid 19 pandemic the Club continues to hold monthly gatherings on the Zoom platform and 48 members participated.
Members were encouraged to log on at 1:45 to enjoy some social time in break out room groups of 4 to 8 people.
Co-Host and Zoom guru Alan Brown welcomed everyone and turned the meeting over to President Sandy Dreger at 2:00. Sandy thanked everyone who has worked to keep us in touch with Zoo. She asked everyone to send her suggestions for speakers for upcoming meetings. She also encouraged everyone to stay connected until the end of the meeting as they needed to be "present" to win a door prize.
Sandy then introduced this month's speaker Dr. Tanja Daws. Dr. Daws was born and raised in South Africa. She graduated from medical school at the University of Pretoria in 2000 and practiced as a family physician before moving to Canada in 2009. She provides Family Medicine care to patients in her own full practice and consults on patients with chronic neuropathic pain, migraine and MAID on referral from other physicians.
As one of the first providers of Medical Assistance in Dying upon it becoming legal in 2016, she teaches and mentors physicians, nurse practitioners and medical residents in MAID. She assesses and provides for patients who wish to have MAID locally and in other communities as needed. Dr. Daws is a founding member and board director of CAMAP (Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers) and is a member of the Physician Advisory Council for Dying With Dignity Canada. She has presented on MAID internationally. She is a clinical instructor in Family Medicine at UBC.
Dr. Daws began her presentation with anecdotal information about how there are a myriad of ways in which MAID patients manage the end of life - quietly alone, with only one or two people sharing the experience or in large, sometimes exuberant events. There is sadness and humour and love and grief.
Her talk then focused on the history of how Bill C-14 came to be - meeting some of the goals that champions fought for and leaving room for improvement. She also outlined the pending changes in Bill C-7 that is slated to be enacted this month - fingers crossed. New provisions will eliminate the 10 day waiting or reflection period, will reduce the number of witnesses to the declaration from two to one, will allow doctor's or nurse practioners to be the required witness, will remove the requirement of “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” and will ensure that a patient losing capacity between the time of consent and the time MAID is provided is still able to access this procedure
Left on the table is the issue of advance consent (allowing for people to establish a set list of criteria that would give a designated person permission to request MAID when the person is not able to give consent). An example of this is in issues of dementia.
When Bill C-17 was enacted in 2016 Parliament agreed that the bill would be reviewed with a goal of amending it in five years. In 2021 there will be another chance for people to provide feedback to government to include provision for Advanced Care Directives to included in the amended Act.
Dr. Daws also shared statistics about the prevalence and acceptance of MAID in Canada and specifically on Vancouver Island. The Netherlands and Belgium are the countries with MAID policies that most closely resemble Canada's and these laws have been in place for 20 years. While the incidence of MAID in increasing all across Canada it lags far behind these two countries with one exception - Vancouver Island where we meet and exceed the numbers. While no definitive studies can explain why, Dr. Daws suggested it may be the high percentage of our population who have chosen to live on Vancouver Island for quality of life reasons and it is natural that this type of person would also want to be in charge of the quality and timing of their death. She also promoted the services of Comox Valley Hospice Society who provide grief support for family members of MAID recipients.
After Dr. Daws' presentation, Probus member Steve Hill commented that his parents where early supporters of Dying with Dignity when he was young and he knows they would be pleased to see Bill C-14 and hopefully C-7 adopted.
Steve Ray thanked Dr. Daws for her informative and thought provoking presentation.
Sandy turned over the screen to Dorothy McGinn who had a Christmas Trivia quiz for participants. Brenda and Stephen Latta had 10 correct answers (out of 13) and were declared the winners.
Dorothy then announced the winners of the door draw prize - using a Google random number generator. Due to screen sharing multiple winners will have to negotiate how to share their winnings. The winners of gift cards to Art Knapp's were: Dave Scott, Steve Hill, Vicki Matthew and Robin Pearson and Bev and Gerry Haist. Donna Crozier will contact the winners.
Meeting adjourned at 3:15.
The next Monthly Gathering will be on Thursday, January 7 at 2:00 p.m.
Members were encouraged to log on at 1:45 to enjoy some social time in break out room groups of 4 to 8 people.
Co-Host and Zoom guru Alan Brown welcomed everyone and turned the meeting over to President Sandy Dreger at 2:00. Sandy thanked everyone who has worked to keep us in touch with Zoo. She asked everyone to send her suggestions for speakers for upcoming meetings. She also encouraged everyone to stay connected until the end of the meeting as they needed to be "present" to win a door prize.
Sandy then introduced this month's speaker Dr. Tanja Daws. Dr. Daws was born and raised in South Africa. She graduated from medical school at the University of Pretoria in 2000 and practiced as a family physician before moving to Canada in 2009. She provides Family Medicine care to patients in her own full practice and consults on patients with chronic neuropathic pain, migraine and MAID on referral from other physicians.
As one of the first providers of Medical Assistance in Dying upon it becoming legal in 2016, she teaches and mentors physicians, nurse practitioners and medical residents in MAID. She assesses and provides for patients who wish to have MAID locally and in other communities as needed. Dr. Daws is a founding member and board director of CAMAP (Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers) and is a member of the Physician Advisory Council for Dying With Dignity Canada. She has presented on MAID internationally. She is a clinical instructor in Family Medicine at UBC.
Dr. Daws began her presentation with anecdotal information about how there are a myriad of ways in which MAID patients manage the end of life - quietly alone, with only one or two people sharing the experience or in large, sometimes exuberant events. There is sadness and humour and love and grief.
Her talk then focused on the history of how Bill C-14 came to be - meeting some of the goals that champions fought for and leaving room for improvement. She also outlined the pending changes in Bill C-7 that is slated to be enacted this month - fingers crossed. New provisions will eliminate the 10 day waiting or reflection period, will reduce the number of witnesses to the declaration from two to one, will allow doctor's or nurse practioners to be the required witness, will remove the requirement of “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” and will ensure that a patient losing capacity between the time of consent and the time MAID is provided is still able to access this procedure
Left on the table is the issue of advance consent (allowing for people to establish a set list of criteria that would give a designated person permission to request MAID when the person is not able to give consent). An example of this is in issues of dementia.
When Bill C-17 was enacted in 2016 Parliament agreed that the bill would be reviewed with a goal of amending it in five years. In 2021 there will be another chance for people to provide feedback to government to include provision for Advanced Care Directives to included in the amended Act.
Dr. Daws also shared statistics about the prevalence and acceptance of MAID in Canada and specifically on Vancouver Island. The Netherlands and Belgium are the countries with MAID policies that most closely resemble Canada's and these laws have been in place for 20 years. While the incidence of MAID in increasing all across Canada it lags far behind these two countries with one exception - Vancouver Island where we meet and exceed the numbers. While no definitive studies can explain why, Dr. Daws suggested it may be the high percentage of our population who have chosen to live on Vancouver Island for quality of life reasons and it is natural that this type of person would also want to be in charge of the quality and timing of their death. She also promoted the services of Comox Valley Hospice Society who provide grief support for family members of MAID recipients.
After Dr. Daws' presentation, Probus member Steve Hill commented that his parents where early supporters of Dying with Dignity when he was young and he knows they would be pleased to see Bill C-14 and hopefully C-7 adopted.
Steve Ray thanked Dr. Daws for her informative and thought provoking presentation.
Sandy turned over the screen to Dorothy McGinn who had a Christmas Trivia quiz for participants. Brenda and Stephen Latta had 10 correct answers (out of 13) and were declared the winners.
Dorothy then announced the winners of the door draw prize - using a Google random number generator. Due to screen sharing multiple winners will have to negotiate how to share their winnings. The winners of gift cards to Art Knapp's were: Dave Scott, Steve Hill, Vicki Matthew and Robin Pearson and Bev and Gerry Haist. Donna Crozier will contact the winners.
Meeting adjourned at 3:15.
The next Monthly Gathering will be on Thursday, January 7 at 2:00 p.m.