MAID and Capacity 101

Speakers:

• Caitlin Buchel, Speech language pathologist. Caitlin is the owner and managing clinician of Buchel Speech and Language Group, a private speech-language pathology practice in Manitoba. She has been a consulting speech-language pathologist on the provincial Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) team since shortly after its formation in April 2016. Caitlin has been involved in more than 70 MAID cases – facilitating communication between patients and the interdisciplinary MAID team, from eligibility assessments through to provision. Caitlin has created a number of communication tools to support MAID assessment and presented at several venues regarding the role of S-LPs in MAID. She has also contributed to the development of CAMAP guidelines on assessment of capacity for MAID.
• Dr. Lilian Thorpe, MAID assessor and provider. Dr. Thorpe is a geriatric psychiatrist with dual academic appointments as Professor of psychiatry and Community Health and Epidemiology at the U of S. Dr. Thorpe spends much of her clinical time performing assessments of capacity in complex patients, but also assesses many patients requesting MAID. She was a member of the Saskatoon Health Region committee which developed the MAID policy, and has now been involved with over 400 assessments and/or clinical MAID provisions throughout the province. Dr. Thorpe has provided MAID related teaching sessions at multiple U of S, Health Authority and conference settings.  She is actively involved in MAID related research and publication.