AMI-Quebec presents a Panel Discussion on the Complexity of Medical Assistance in Dying for Mental Illness

AMI-Quebec will address the complexity of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) for Mental Illness with a panel of psychiatrists and people living with mental illness on Thursday, November 2, 7:00pm, at Concordia University Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, 7141 Sherbrooke W., Montreal, and livestreamed online.

In June 2016, the Parliament of Canada passed federal legislation that allows eligible Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying. Once reserved for people whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable, in 2021 the law was expanded to those not at imminent risk of dying, but for whom illness, disability, or disease is causing enduring and intolerable suffering.

On December 15, 2022, the Government of Canada announced its intention to introduce legislation to seek an extension of the temporary exclusion of eligibility for persons suffering solely from mental illness, and on February 2, 2023, it introduced legislation (Bill C-39) to further extend that temporary exclusion for a period of one year, until March 17, 2024.

Moderated by CBC’s Nantali Indongo, our panel participants will be psychiatrists Dr. Sonu Gaind and Dr. Derryck Smith, and Alicia Raimondu and Chris Summerville, both living with mental illness.

A complex issue, MAiD for mental illness has been fraught with controversies, representing strong opinions across the continuum. The event is aimed at addressing the multi-faceted, complicated, nuanced subject of MAID for mental illness through different perspectives.

For the past 46 years, AMI-Québec has been committed to helping families manage the effects of mental illness through support, education, guidance and advocacy. By promoting understanding, we work to dispel the stigma still surrounding mental illness, thereby helping to create communities that offer new hope for meaningful lives.