Aged Care Essentials | Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) in residential aged care report card: room for improvement

A new national report card finds that most residential aged care providers are yet to meet their obligations around voluntary assisted dying. Here is what the findings mean for providers and what action is required.

What the report found

In April 2026, Go Gentle Australia published its second national report card on voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in residential aged care homes. The report assessed 70 unique providers, covering 66% of all residential aged care provision in Australia and approximately 130,000 aged care beds. The report found that, despite VAD being legal in every state and the ACT, most providers are still falling short of their obligations around this legally available end-of-life option.

Of the 70 providers assessed:

• Only 10% offer comprehensive VAD information and full access to VAD
• 66% provide no public information about VAD whatsoever
• 73% offer no, restricted, or unpublished VAD access to consumers 
  
  

What the law requires

Providers have obligations under both Commonwealth aged care legislation and state-based VAD legislation to ensure that older people's end-of-life choices are respected:

The Aged Care Act 2024 (Cth) places the safety, health, wellbeing and quality of life of individuals at the centre of aged care delivery. Its Statement of Rights gives older people the right to exercise choice and make decisions about their own lives, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to receive safe, fair, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment. The Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards reinforce these rights across multiple outcomes, including person-centred care, choice and independence, and palliative and end-of-life care.

Critically, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has made clear that a provider's decision not to participate in VAD does not extinguish its obligation to support consumers' access. As the Commission's guidance states, a provider that decides not to take part will still have to meet its obligation to support older people's access to medical services, including in relation to VAD.

VAD may not be used as a reason to ask a consumer to leave their home, and care and support must continue regardless of a person's VAD choices.

Where providers are falling short

Beyond the headline statistics, the report identified a range of specific problems with how providers are approaching VAD, including:

• No VAD policy. Some of Australia's largest providers reported having no VAD policy at all, including providers operating in states where VAD has been legal for several years. One large provider submitted a policy that still contained placeholder text, indicating it had not been reviewed or implemented.
• Misleading language. Some providers are reinforcing harmful stigma by publishing statements that do not recognise VAD as a medical treatment or as part of end-of-life care. This is contrary to the position of both the Australian Medical Association and the national health information service, Health Direct, and may cause distress to consumers seeking information.
• Conflating VAD and suicide. Some providers are using language that associates VAD with suicide. Most Australian VAD laws explicitly state that VAD is not suicide, and a 2023 joint statement from Australia's suicide prevention leaders including Lifeline and Beyond Blue highlighted the damage caused by this conflation.
• Hard to find information. Where VAD information does exist, it is commonly buried in the governance or policy sections of websites, or in outdated blog posts, rather than alongside consumer-facing information about end-of-life care.
• Not person-centred. Much of the VAD information reviewed reflects the views of the provider's leadership rather than explaining, in plain language, what a consumer can actually expect if they choose VAD.
• Practical barriers. The report also identified real-world harm caused by restrictive VAD policies, including consumers being required to leave their facilities for assessments or to take VAD medication, delays due to restrictions on VAD clinician access, and emotional distress caused by institutional stigma. Research cited in the report identified three categories of harm: delays in accessing VAD, reduced choice about where and when medication is administered, and emotional cost to people and their families.

What providers must do

The report is clear about what is required of all residential aged care providers. Providers should:

• Develop and publish a VAD policy. Every provider operating in a jurisdiction where VAD is legal should have a current, reviewed VAD policy. It should be written in clear language, shared with all staff including frontline and reception staff, stored in an accessible location, and made publicly available on request. It should be subject to annual review.
• Publish plain language VAD information on your website. This information must be easy to find, written from the perspective of the consumer, and displayed alongside other end-of-life care information. It should not appear only in governance sections. The information should explain what a consumer can expect if they ask about VAD, whether VAD assessments can take place on site, whether VAD clinicians can visit the facility, how VAD medication will be stored and administered, and what will happen if the provider does not support VAD on site.
• Include contact details for the VAD Care Navigator Service. Regardless of the provider's position on VAD, public information must include contact details for the relevant state VAD Care Navigator Service.
• Train staff at all levels. Training should be appropriate to each staff member's role and should address both the practical and the emotional dimensions of supporting consumers with VAD. Staff with conscientious objections must be supported to opt out, while the consumer's needs remain the priority.
• Appoint a VAD Lead. Designating a named VAD Lead within the organisation ensures accountability and gives consumers and families a clear point of contact.
• Do not restrict access. Providers must not prevent VAD clinicians from visiting consumers, require consumers to leave the facility unnecessarily, or allow VAD to become a reason to withdraw care or ask a consumer to leave.

The compliance and regulatory picture

The report raises pointed questions about regulatory enforcement. Providers in SA, QLD and NSW that do not publish VAD information and do not provide VAD access are non-compliant with their state legislation. The report calls on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to enforce providers' VAD-related obligations as a condition of registration, and on the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner to treat complaints about VAD access in a timely manner.

Given that the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission is actively monitoring compliance with the Strengthened Quality Standards, providers should be aware that their approach to VAD is not just an ethical question: it is a compliance obligation. 

Taking action

For providers who have not yet developed a VAD policy or published accessible information, the time for action is now. VAD has been legal in Australia's most populous states for several years, the Aged Care Act is in force, and the Strengthened Quality Standards are being actively assessed by the regulator.

The good news is that meaningful improvement does not require significant resources and the path forward is straightforward: develop a policy, publish clear information, train staff, appoint a VAD lead, and ensure that consumers can access the support they need. Providers who take these steps are not only meeting their legal obligations; they are demonstrating a genuine commitment to the dignity, autonomy and wellbeing of the people they provide care and services to.