Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Background Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) is a legal health service in Canada that allows eligible people to choose to end their life through a safe and respectful medical process. Many people who request MAID experience severe physical or psychological suffering, such as pain, loss of independence, or feelings of loneliness and isolation. In Canada, MAID applicants are assessed under two main categories: Track 1 for people whose natural death is expected soon, and Track 2 for those whose death is not foreseeable but who still meet other eligibility criteria. National data show that people in Track 2 are more than twice as likely as those in Track 1 to report loneliness and isolation as part of their suffering. However, we know little about this issue at the provincial level or about who these individuals are. Method This study used MAID data from Alberta, collected between March 2021 (when Track 2 began) and August 2025, to explore the characteristics of people who reported loneliness and isolation during their MAID assessment. We looked at demographic and social factors and compared those who reported loneliness with those who did not, across both tracks. Result and Conclusion Among 979 people who received MAID, 24.1% in Track 1 and 47.9% in Track 2 reported loneliness and isolation as their suffering. Statistical analysis showed a strong relationship between track type and loneliness. Further results will describe how demographic characteristics differ across these groups.