This content has been automatically generated from the original PDF and some formatting may have been lost. Let us know if you find any major problems.
Text in this format is not official and should not be relied upon to extract citations or propose amendments. Please see the PDF for the official version of the document.
WQ.196/2024
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES
BY DEPUTY K.M. WILSON OF ST. CLEMENT
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 13th MAY 2024
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 20th MAY 2024
Question
“Will the Minister detail what discussions he or his department has had with organisations representing people with a disability or long-term health condition regarding the assisted dying proposals, including the identity of organisations?”
Answer
During the first 2 phases of consultation, there was engagement with both disabled islanders/ islanders with long-term health conditions and organisations representing people with a disability or long-term health condition. This included:
• The publication of accessible formats of the summary proposals including Easy Read and British Sign Language (BSL)
• 2 dedicated accessible consultation meetings for disabled islanders / islanders with long term health conditions (in wheelchair-accessible venues and with communication support, including BSL interpreters and on-screen speech to text captions). These sessions were held on 13 December 2022 and 18 January 2023
• In-person meeting with voluntary and community sector groups representing disabled Islanders held on 24 November 2022. Around 30 organisations were invited to attend this meeting.
• The online consultation survey was open to all, and received responses from islanders with a disability or a long-term condition [Note: The survey did not ask respondents to declare if they had a disability or a long-term condition, but some responses explicitly referenced this]
• In addition, officers discussed the emerging proposals with Family Nursing and Home Care, Jersey Cheshire Home, the Sight Impaired Partnership Board / EYECAN, and Jersey Hospice.
Post lodging of P18/2024, there was additional engagement with people with disabilities and long-term conditions, focusing specifically on proposals related to ‘Route 2 – unbearable suffering’, as opposed to more generally on all matters related to assisted dying. Officers worked in partnership with Enable Jersey and Jersey Employment Trust to plan and undertake sessions. In addition, they also meet with the Older Person’s Living Forum.
The detail of this engagement process, and the associated feedback, is set out in the Addendum to P18/2024 as lodged on 7 May 2024.