Know Your Rights: VAD in Aged Care

Find out if your aged care home supports voluntary assisted dying (VAD)

Research from Go Gentle Australia shows two thirds of aged care providers don't publish any public information about VAD in their aged care homes, even though it's legal in all six states and the ACT. 

Finding out too late that your aged care home doesn't support VAD can make it very difficult to make that choice.

Older people deserve clear information about what happens if they choose VAD and live in aged care, so they can make informed choices about their care.

That's why we've created Know Your Rights, a guide to VAD in Aged Care. This booklet explains your rights and questions to ask your aged care home to find out if they support VAD. 

And if you are unsure if your aged care home supports VAD, you can search your provider in our database to see how they compare with 70 of the largest providers of aged care homes in Australia.

Read the guide here	Click here to search your provider

A national report card

In September 2025, Go Gentle published a national report card on voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in residential aged care homes to encourage transparency by providers about the support they give to residents seeking VAD.

This follow up report provides updated data, correct to January 2026, and for the first time identifies residential aged care providers by name.

Unfortunately, this report again finds that the majority of Australia’s residential aged care providers do not give VAD the same support and visibility as other end-of-life choices, despite some states having VAD legislation for more than six years.

Read the report	Info template for providers

In the media

• ABC Radio Brisbane Afternoons - interview with Go Gentle's CEO Dr Linda Swan [listen from 52:00 mark] (5 May 2026)
• ABC Radio Hobart Drive - interview with Go Gentle's CEO Dr Linda Swan [listen from 1:20:00 mark] (5 May 2026)
• The Age - Aged care homes deny terminally ill access to voluntary assisted dying (4 May 2026)
• ABC Radio Melbourne Mornings with Raf Epstein - interview with Go Gentle's CEO Dr Linda Swan [listen from 45:30 mark] (4 May 2026)
• ABC Radio Perth Mornings with Nadia Mitsopoulos - interview with Go Gentle's CEO Dr Linda Swan [listen from 1:36:40 mark] (4 May 2026)
• ABC Radio Canberra Drive with Alice Matthews - interview with Go Gentle's CEO Dr Linda Swan [listen from 1:35:10 mark] (4 May 2026)
• RACGP newsGP - 'Serious transparency problem' in aged care's VAD access (4 May 2026)
• Health Services Daily - Aged care providers ignoring their VAD duties (4 May 2026)
• ABC Radio Sydney Mornings - interview with Go Gentle's Policy & Advocacy manager Frankie Bennett [listen from 1:52 mark] (3 Oct 2025)
• Aged Care Insite - Residential aged care needs to get honest about voluntary assisted dying (2 Oct 2025)
• Inside Ageing - Report finds most aged care homes failing on voluntary assisted dying access (2 Oct 2025)
• Aged Health - Report covering almost 70% of residential aged care has "disturbing" results for VAD (1 Oct 2025)
• The Senior - The information many residential aged care providers don't tell you (30 Sept 2025)