Accessing voluntary assisted dying in the ACT
Information about planning, discussing and preparing for the end of life, including voluntary assisted dying.
We can all plan, discuss and prepare for the end of life at any time.
This can help make the experience more comfortable and give a greater sense of control when it happens.
The information on this page is for people who are considering voluntary assisted dying and their carers, family and friends. If you are a health professional, you should read Supporting voluntary assisted dying for people in your care.
Voluntary assisted dying explained
Voluntary assisted dying is using medical help to end your life at a time you choose. It is for people who have a medical condition that is terminal and causing suffering.
To access voluntary assisted dying you must:
- meet all the requirements
- follow all the steps of the process.
Voluntary assisted dying will be one of the options available in the ACT at the end of your life. It will be available along with other end of life and palliative care.
Who can access voluntary assisted dying
To access voluntary assisted dying in the ACT you must:
- be 18 or older
- have lived in the ACT for the last 12 months
- have an advanced and progressive medical condition that is expected to cause death and is causing you intolerable suffering
- have decision making capacity at all stages throughout the process
- be acting voluntarily and without coercion.
If you have not lived in the ACT for the last 12 months but have a substantial connection to the ACT, you’ll be able to apply for an exemption.
People who live in Jervis Bay Territory will need to apply for a residency exemption if they want to access voluntary assisted dying in the ACT.
If you have a disability or mental illness you will be able to access voluntary assisted dying if you meet all the eligibility requirements. Having a mental illness alone will not make a person eligible to access voluntary assisted dying under the law. A disability can only make you eligible if you also meet all of the eligibility criteria.
Residency exemptions
If you don’t usually live in the ACT, you may be able to get a residency exemption to access voluntary assisted dying if you have a substantial connection to the ACT.
A residency exemption can only be considered for people who:
- live outside the ACT, or have not lived in the ACT for the last 12 months
- are aware that all steps of the voluntary assisted dying process must occur in the ACT. This includes storing and taking the voluntary assisted dying substance in the ACT.
You may have a substantial connection to the ACT if you:
- have lived in a place close to the ACT border for at least the last 12 months and you work in or get medical treatment in the ACT
- have moved to the ACT so your carers, family or friends who live in the ACT can give you care and support
- have lived in the ACT before and your carers, family or friends live in the ACT
- identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and have a substantial connection with the ACT community and wish to die on Country
- have lived in the ACT for less than 12 months but have been diagnosed with an eligible condition since moving to the ACT.
More information about how to apply for an exemption will be available before 3 November 2025.
Starting the process
After 3 November 2025, you can ask a doctor or nurse practitioner to help you start the process. If they are an authorised practitioner, they can accept your request. This is called making your first request.
Not all doctors and nurse practitioners will provide voluntary assisted dying services. If you ask a health practitioner who is not an authorised practitioner and/or is unable to help you access voluntary assisted dying, they must give you the details of the ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service or the details of an authorised practitioner who can help you, within 4 business days.
The voluntary assisted dying process starts when an authorised practitioner accepts your first request. This practitioner then becomes your coordinating practitioner.
Closer to 3 November 2025 you will be able to read more about the requirements and steps in the voluntary assisted dying process in a first request information pack.
The process
There will be 10 steps in the voluntary assisted dying process in ACT. You can stop or pause the process at any time.
First request
You ask an authorised doctor or nurse practitioner to access voluntary assisted dying.
First assessment
Your coordinating practitioner checks if you are eligible to access voluntary assisted dying.
Consulting assessment
A different authorised practitioner (called a consulting practitioner) also checks if you are eligible to access voluntary assisted dying.
Second request
You fill in a written form to confirm you want to access voluntary assisted dying.
Final request
You make a clear final request for voluntary assisted dying.
Final assessment
Your coordinating practitioner confirms you have decision-making capacity and are acting voluntarily and are not being coerced.
Administration decision
You decide if you want to take the voluntary assisted dying substance yourself (self-administration) or have it given to you by a practitioner (called an administering practitioner). If you wish to take the substance yourself, you’ll choose a contact person as part of this process. If you are going to have the substance administered to you, you’ll appoint an administering practitioner.
Prescription and supply
The voluntary assisted dying substance is supplied by the ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Pharmacy Service.
Administering the substance
If you take the substance yourself, your contact person will get information from your coordinating practitioner about their role and responsibilities.
If you are going to have the substance administered to you, your administering practitioner will be there when your death happens.
After death
Your death is confirmed, and the ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Oversight Board and ACT Births, Deaths and Marriages are told about your death.
You can also download a copy of this process. More information will be available closer to 3 November 2025.
Assessed as not eligible
If you are not eligible to access voluntary assisted dying, your coordinating practitioner will talk to you about your options. It’s important to talk about what this means for you and how this news makes you feel.
They can help you get:
- access to palliative care services to manage your symptoms and end-of-life care
- counselling
- information and a referral for more support.
Your coordinating practitioner will also tell you if you could become eligible in the future or not.
Help with communicating
When accessing voluntary assisted dying, you’ll need to be able to communicate your needs and decisions at each stage of the process. If you need support in doing this, communication support is available. This ensures that your choices are understood and respected at every stage.
You can do this by:
- speaking
- using gestures
- using communication aids like text-to-speech devices, symbol boards, or apps
- writing
- using any other self operated communication aids.
Using an interpreter
You can use an interpreter during the voluntary assisted dying process.
Your interpreter must not:
- be your family member or friend
- know or believe they will get anything from your will
- know or believe they will get any money or other material from helping you access voluntary assisted dying or from your death, other than fees for interpreting
- be an owner or responsible for the management of a facility where you live
- be giving a health, aged care or personal care service to you
An exemption to the above criteria can be granted if there are exceptional circumstances and no other interpreter is reasonably available.
To ensure the appropriate skills required to provide interpreter services as part of the voluntary assisted dying processes, it is preferable your interpreter is accredited by a professional body such as the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI).
Interpreters may choose not to be involved in your voluntary assisted dying process. Your authorised practitioner will arrange an interpreter if one is required.
For some parts of the voluntary assisted dying process your interpreter will have to go to your appointments in-person. Your coordinating practitioner will tell you when this needs to happen.
Using allied health professionals for supported communication
Speech pathologists, occupational therapists, social workers, counsellors or support workers can help you to communicate your decisions or needs. Allied health professionals can help if you use communication aids or have trouble speaking. Your coordinating practitioner will be able to find you a qualified allied health professional to help you during the process. There may be a cost for these services.
Using an agent to sign documents on your behalf
An agent is someone who signs a form for you when you can’t physically do it yourself, like if you can’t hold a pen. When you make your written second request or choose a contact person, you’ll have to fill in forms in writing.
The agent can only sign the forms if you ask them, and they must do it when you and your witness are with them.
The agent must be 18 years or older.
They must not be:
- your voluntary assisted dying practitioner
- your witness to signing the forms.
After death
After your death, an authorised practitioner will complete the Medical Certificate Cause of Death. The medical condition will be recorded as the cause of death and voluntary assisted dying will be noted as the manner of death. The doctor will tell ACT Births, Relationships and Deaths to issue the final formal death certificate. This will not contain any reference to voluntary assisted dying.
Your coordinating practitioner will also let the Voluntary Assisted Dying Oversight Board know about your death.
Your carers, family and friends will be able to follow the usual traditional ceremonies and practices including cultural or burial rituals.
Services and support
ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service
This service will be a central point of contact for the ACT community for enquiries about voluntary assisted dying in the ACT. The service will be available for everyone including you, your carers, family and friends. It will be staffed by health professionals called care navigators.
The care navigators will:
- give general information about voluntary assisted dying in the ACT
- help people find voluntary assisted dying practitioners
- help people access resources and support.
The care navigator service will be open from Monday to Friday during normal working hours. The contact details will be available closer to 3 November 2025.
ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Pharmacy Service
This service will make sure any eligible person accessing voluntary assisted dying will be provided with the voluntary assisted dying substance, other medications they need and education in line with best practice. It will be located with the ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service at Canberra Hospital. It will be the only pharmacy in the ACT who can supply and dispose of the voluntary assisted dying substance.
It will be open Monday to Friday during normal working hours.
Counselling and mental health support
When someone is dying or has died it can be a very stressful and sad time.
Grief is experienced differently by different people. There is no right way to feel when losing someone. Grief often involves intense sadness, and sometimes feelings of shock and numbness, or even denial and anger.
Grief can be complex, and it can also start before a person dies, which is common with voluntary assisted dying.
You, your carers, families or friends can call these free services if you need support:
- Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service.
- Lifeline on 13 11 14 – open 24 hours for crisis telephone support.
- Griefline on 1300 845 745 – open 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week.
- Grief Australia on 1800 642 066 – open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
- Canberra Grief Centre on 0409 966 515 – open 9am to 5pm, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
- Solace ACT on 02 6297 1052.
- 13YARN on 13 92 76 – open 24 hours for crisis telephone support. Yarn with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporter.
- ACT Government Grief and Bereavement website.
People with disability or mental illness
If you have a disability or mental illness, you’ll be able to access voluntary assisted dying if you meet all of the eligibility criteria.
Having a mental illness alone will not make you eligible to access voluntary assisted dying under the ACT law. A disability can only make you eligible if it also meets all of the eligibility criteria.
If you have a disability that makes it hard for you to communicate, you’ll be able to:
- have a support person attend appointments with you
- get help during appointments from an allied health professional such as a speech pathologist or occupational therapist
- use your normal means of communication, which may include communication aids such as a text to audio device or communication board, writing or communicating through facial expressions or gestures.
If you speak a language other than English
If your main language is not English, there is help available. We want to make sure that everyone, including people from different cultural backgrounds and people with disabilities, can understand and feel supported during this process.
When considering voluntary assisted dying, you’ll need to clearly express your wishes and understand what is happening at every step. You will not be asked to complete any part of the process in English without support.
Resources in different languages about voluntary assisted dying are being developed.
It will not be possible to translate all the relevant resources into every language spoken in the ACT. You can get help in your language by contacting the Translating and Interpreting Service on 13 14 50.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may wish to die on Country as part of their end-of-life journey.
The ACT law has rules about where voluntary assisted dying can take place. You’ll be able to choose to die at home surrounded by family and on Country, but your death will need to take place in the ACT.
If you do not usually live in the ACT, but want to die on Country in the ACT, you’ll be able to apply for a residency exemption.
More information will be available before 3 November 2025 in a voluntary assisted dying factsheet for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Giving feedback
If you have any feedback about your experience with the voluntary assisted dying process, you’ll be able to:
- speak with your coordinating practitioner
- contact the ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service
- complete a Personal Reflection Form which is sent to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Oversight Board.
If your feedback is about Canberra Health Services, visit their consumer and carer feedback webpage.
If you have complaints about health services and health records in the ACT, you can contact the ACT Human Rights Commission.
You can raise concerns about the conduct or performance of a registered health practitioner with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).