Fellow Canadians: Would ADHD qualify me for MAID?

[PurpleMonkey]

As many know, Canada's MAID program will accept applications for people with "mental disorders" starting March 2023. It seems that as long as you have a physician's reference and confirmation that your ailment is "irreversible", you can qualify for the procedure.

However, I Google'd high and low for a concrete definition of what the Canadian government would deem to be a qualified "mental disorder" and found no concrete criteria. This leads me to believe that the matter is up for debate and that a doctor's word can go a long way in permitting a patient's access to MAID.

Therefore, would I have a chance in using my ADHD-PI diagnosis as a ticket to MAID or would that be a stretch? The grapevine has told me that bipolar disorder and clinical depression are both plausibly accepted "mental disorders" so why not another measurably debilitating and medically accept disorder like ADD?

Should I hold off on the SN method until there's more clarity regarding eligibility? Would making an inquiry with a professional draw too much suspicion?

 

[Chronicoverwhelm]

Good questions. I suspect that making an inquiry with a professional would draw too much suspicion. I've got ADHD (one of my biggest reasons for wanting to CTB) depression and anxiety & I'm in Canada too, so I'm very interested in hearing others' input on this as well.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

You probably need a lot of documentation attesting to the fact that ADHD has been extremely debilitating to you and it is reasonable to expect it will never improve. If you feel you can wait maybe it is worth waiting. I heard standards were laxer than you might think, though I don't know how true that is.

 

[FallFadesIntoWinter]

You'd most likely need your GP (doctor) to sign off on it and then refer you to a number of specialists after that (like a clinical doctor trained in ADHD, a Cognitive Behaviour Specialist, a psychiatrist etc.). If there's one thing I know about establishing medical evidence for something (which I learned the hard way after a car accident and going after the driver who hit me) is that you need a TON of paperwork to push things through like this.

Not discouraging you or anyone else from pursuing this, just know you may have to go to various specialists first to get them to sign off on something.

Look into it though, hey, you never know what the requirements are until you ask. Could be not as bad as I made it out to be as well.

 

[Rounded Agony]

Honestly, I would advise against getting your hopes up.

The community of medical practitioners here is not even uniformly in favour of this change in legislation, so right off the bat the odds are working against you. You need not one, but two independent physicians or nurse practitioners to sign off on your request. Save for those who have some personal passion for this - moral, financial, or whatever else - the fact of the matter is that it is also extra work, and most physicians here are at the end of their ropes already. This article discusses the sobering reality.

Given the long-standing indoctrination (see what I did there?) of "doing no harm" in medicine, I am totally expecting nothing short of advanced cases of things like C-PTSD, dementia, schizophrenia, personality disorders, treatment-resistant depression, and eating disorders (the latter only because there has already been at least one successful application) will be getting the green light for this.

Round all this out that the names of practitioners who are generally willing to get involved in this are going to circulate - fast - and everyone and their dog is gonna be trying to connect with them, so just like with everything else regarding accessing health"care" here, there's going to be an eternal wait for it. The following article just came out a couple of days ago; haven't read it but looks worthwhile:

Canada will soon allow medically assisted dying for mental illness. Has there been enough time to get it right?

With doctors divided and federal guidelines still in development, Canadians have questions about who will qualify for MAID next year – and whether it’s a good idea to give the most vulnerable an easier way to die

www.theglobeandmail.com

 

[PurpleMonkey]

Thank you for all the incredibly informative replies, strangers. It seems best to wait until March 2023 and see how applications go. If there's a general acceptance (and at least one acceptable ADHD-related application) then maybe I can get my former psychologists to write a referral.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

Thank you for all the incredibly informative replies, strangers. It seems best to wait until March 2023 and see how applications go. If there's a general acceptance (and at least one acceptable ADHD-related application) then maybe I can get my former psychologists to write a referral.

That seems like a sound idea. If I were Canadian I would wait to apply because being able to die openly is much more preferable. It would suck if you were deemed not severe enough (though I honestly believe I would be approved), but you have SN to fall back on and luckily it keeps for much longer than 5 months.

 

[NeverEndingPain]

I'm afraid to inquire about it and then deemed to be suicidal and put into inpatients

 

[lachrymost]

We just don't know yet. I'm Canadian and have ADHD too, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[BillyBob]

Best of luck. I watched that documentary about MAID and the ones suffering from depression and mental illnesses have got proof that it has been debilitating for them from the long lists of medications and therapy etc that they have gone through. So I would suspect that with your application you can try but you will need some sort of proof from your doctor that it is greatly effecting you.

I wonder if you are medications and are tired of taking them but can not live a normal life without them may help with a referral too.
Also will you have to shop around for a physician? Some will not want to be any part of it since they have taken the stance of do no harm. Si you may have to find one that is willing too.

 

[Rounded Agony]

I expanded on what I wrote above and combined it with a reply to another thread in starting my own, which will hopefully address this issue for anyone in the future wondering who might find themselves here first:

https://sanctioned-suicide.net/thre...a-suicide-tourism-destination-in-2023.103413/