This is my stop: Recent Episodes
South Metropolitan Health Service
Navigating and understanding the voluntary assisted dying experience Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is a legal end-of-life process through which eligible Western Australians dying from an advanced and progressive terminal illness or disease may legally choose the manner and timing of their death.
Through this podcast, families, friends and healthcare professionals generously share their VAD journeys to support others in understanding and exploring this end-of-life choice.
These stories reflect the perceptions and experiences of those involved. They were created to support Western Australians in their conversations and open discussion with their health practitioners, family, carers and community about treatment options and care preferences, and do not replace specialised advice from trained VAD healthcare professionals.
Bri warmly brings you to the journey she and her husband Paul walked in their experience of his cancer diagnosis, end of life planning and decision making. A beautiful story of immense love and honesty, she shares with us their last few months together through treatment, celebrations, challenges and farewells to Paul’s death with VAD and the time for her afterwards.
Content Warning - this content discusses suicide and self-harm.
Join Roy as he openly shares his story, talking through his journey with motor neurone disease, feelings that his life was disposable and would lead him to take his own life, to his VAD experience after raising this with his health care team. Roy generously explains his new lease on life after being found eligible for voluntary assisted dying and what this has meant for him in his exploration of faith and the value of listening to his own gut, instinct and intuition in determining what choices are right for him.
Mental Health Support Services
-
Lifeline 13 11 14 | Text 0477 13 11 14 | lifeline.org.au
-
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander 13 92 76 | 13yarn.org.au
- Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467 | suicidecallbackservice.org.au
- StandBy Support After Suicide 1300 727 247 | standbysupport.com.au
- Beyond Blue 1300 224 636 | beyondblue.org.au/forums
- MensLine Australia 1300 789 978 | mensline.org.au
- Butterfly Foundation 1800 334 673 | butterfly.org.au
Join us as Lauren takes us with her family through the last few days of her dad's life and his VAD journey. Brimming with love, she shares finding joy in the most unlikely of places and finding peace alongside the grief of losing her Dad with the understanding that while his death was inevitable, his suffering didn't have to be.
Join Gina as she shares her love story with her courageous daughter Robbi through acceptance of Robbi’s terminal illness and journey to end of life through death meetings, humour, memory making, accessing VAD and final goodbyes. Gina talks us through how they approached this as a family, to ensure Robbi’s control over the manner, timing and nature of her death and her capacity to see the beauty in Robbi’s gift to her, embracing both joy and sorrow of her story.
In this episode of ‘This is my stop’ podcast, Lisa shares her story of supporting her husband, Stephen, with his pancreatic cancer diagnosis just after his 53rd birthday, through to his treatment, hospitalisation and exploration of end of life choices.
Lisa talks through the challenges and the firsts they shared along the way, including when Stephen ultimately chose to access voluntary assisted dying and end his life on his own terms, with his ‘ace in his back pocket’
Hear Kerri and Brodie chat about the voluntary assisted dying journey their Nanna and Mum, Betty, chose to take.
Betty made a long-term commitment to this end of life option and worked through the process following her disease progression.
They share the day that she died surrounded by her family, dressed beautifully exactly as the lady she was, and their journey as a family in finding meaning in this space - including the serendipitous visits just after her death.
Dr Gareth Wahl shares his journey to caring for people and their support network in exploring Voluntary Assisted Dying, and the richness of this role as a VAD Practitioner. From his experiences, Gareth outlines the broad brushstrokes of what patients and families can expect when navigating Voluntary Assisted Dying in Western Australia, including answers to the questions they often ask their practitioners.
Recorded at the recent Fiona Wood Public Lecture Series event 'The lived experience of Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD)', this podcasts provides an introduction to VAD in Western Australia (WA).
Through storytelling, hear from clinical nurse consultants from the Voluntary Assisted Dying Statewide Care Navigator Service, Meg Plaster and Alice Morison, on a discussion of lessons learned not just in WA, but internationally from a Churchill Fellow, as we seek to understand the experience and support the needs of those involved in VAD.
Dan takes us with him from his shock diagnosis of a brain tumour through his purposeful decision making around treatment and care planning with a goal to outlive his prognosis while maintaining quality of life. Expressing overwhelming feelings of empowerment and release through exploring VAD as an unexpected end of life choice, Dan shares that whilst his diagnosis is immovable, being informed and holding some control over how his death may be as his 'get out of jail card' has freed him to focus on the time in between as a living journey with his wife and family.
Niki outlines the role of the WA Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) Statewide Pharmacy Service. She talks about the unique role the Service has in supplying the VAD substance to wherever it is needed across WA, and supporting people and their families as they reach the formal end of the VAD process.
Barbara describes her journey with her husband as they explored voluntary assisted dying together with his military precision and careful planning to support her and their adult children prepare for life without him. Barbara shares the things that have helped her along the challenging journey in supporting him with a neurodegenerative condition, his decision to access VAD and the conscious choices they made to keep him at home using all resources available until he reached the day he had marked in his calendar.
Listen as Sam shares her experience of being by her mother’s side throughout her end-of-life journey from lung cancer, and their conscious commitment to making memories as a family.
Actively choosing to make the most of the time available to them, the family worked through her mother’s ‘bucket list’ before her death, using all services available to them including excellent palliative care to support her to die at home.
Nikki discusses how the WA Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service supports people and families by demystifying this end-of-life care option. She also shares some of her experiences since VAD became a legal end-of-life choice for Western Australians.