Speaker Series: Professor Michael Ashby - What Next in End-of-Life Care?

Join PCT for a thought-provoking presentation on "What next in end-of-life care" by Professor Michael Ashby, a leading expert in Palliative Care and Medical Ethics.

This session is designed for health professionals, palliative care workers, and community members who are interested in understanding the complex and evolving challenges in palliative care, particularly in the context of aging populations and chronic diseases.

Professor Michael Ashby will discuss:

• The successes and challenges of the international palliative care movement, with a focus on access and quality of care.
• The pressing need to develop palliative approaches for the frail elderly and younger patients with chronic diseases, especially those with advanced dementia.
• The complexities of treatment abatement in an overstressed and risk-averse healthcare system, and the ongoing medico-legal and policy debates surrounding adequate sedation for BPSD (Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia).
• The relationship between Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) pathways and palliative care programs, and the need for cooperation to maintain the relevance of palliative care services.
• The impact of advance directives and the potential for innovative public health approaches to death acceptance.

This Speaker Series will prioritise questions and foster meaningful conversations, with 30 minutes dedicated to the Q&A session.

About the Speaker:

Professor Michael Ashby is a Consultant Physician in Palliative Care and Pain Medicine, and a Professor of Medical Ethics and Death Studies at the University of Tasmania. His distinguished career spans clinical, academic, and leadership roles in palliative care across Australia, including serving as the Chair of the Chapter of Palliative Medicine at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine. He is a member of the International Working Group on Death Dying and Bereavement (IWG), a former Vice-President, director and board member of Grief Australia, and currently the Joint Editor in Chief of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (JBI). This year, Professor Michael Ashby was inducted into the 'Joy Coughlan'  Tasmanian Palliative Care Honour Roll. 

Professor Ashby has been at the forefront of addressing the ethical and practical challenges in end-of-life care. His work explores the intersection of law, ethics, and the humanities as they apply to palliative care and decision-making at the end of life, and has been working on the interface between psychodynamics and death and dying, grief and loss.