This is a brief and simplified guide to the ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying scheme which commenced in November 2025. For full details go the the ACT Health website.
The steps involved in an ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying request are:
To start the process, you need to ask a doctor or nurse practitioner who is trained and authorised to help you access voluntary assisted dying. This is called a first request, and is the first of 3 requests in the process. If you need help finding an authorised voluntary assisted dying practitioner, call the VAD Care Navigator Service on 5124 1888
Read the making a first request information
If you are found not eligible for VAD click here
Dying with Dignity ACT established a witness program in December 2025. We provide witnesses for the written second request being signed by the person approved for voluntary assisted dying (VAD). The written request must be witnessed by two eligible persons and there are often cases where a person approved for VAD does not have anyone to act as a witness to their signature.
We currently have about 20 volunteers trained as witnesses. We have been receiving on average one request a week from the ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service.
In July 2026, the then Minister for Health, Rachel Stephen Smith, wrote to DWDACT to say: “I would like to acknowledge the valuable role the Witnessing Program and your volunteers play by acting as witnesses for people accessing voluntary assisted dying and the close working relationship that has been established with the Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service.”
Additionally, some of our witnesses are available to respond to witnessing requests for some of the towns in the Southern NSW Local Health District, especially Queanbeyan, which have not had access to a witnessing program till now. Those volunteers have been given a training briefing by Dying with Dignity New South Wales who will handle the logistics.
When someone is dying or has died it can be a very sad time for their family and friends.
Grief can start before a person dies, which is common with voluntary assisted dying.
You, your carers, families or friends can use these free services if you need support:
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- The ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service on 02 5124 1888 – open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (excluding public holidays).
- 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.
- Read Griefline's Guide to Coping with grief after voluntary assisted dying
- Canberra Grief Centre on 0409 966 515 – open 9am to 5pm, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
- Solace ACT - Partner Loss Support Group - 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.
- Carer Gateway Service on 1800 422 737.