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Talk, tell, transform lives - Australians urged to make a new kind of New Year’s resolution in 2009

Families across Australia are being encouraged to use get-togethers at the start of a new year to share their intentions about organ donation in a bid to raise our nation’s unacceptable transplantation rates.

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1 January 2009

Families across Australia are being encouraged to use get-togethers at the start of a new year to share their intentions about organ donation in a bid to raise our nation’s unacceptable transplantation rates.

This is to give relatives the confidence and guidance they need to make difficult but life-saving decisions if faced with the tragic death of a loved one.

The call for family discussion coincides with the establishment today of a new national authority which will use a best practice approach to improve Australians’ access to life saving and transforming transplants.

Currently, more than 80 per cent of Australians are willing to donate their organ and tissues after death, but the number of deceased organ donors meets just one-third of the national demand for transplants.

The call also goes out to the six million Australians who have taken the step of signing up to the Australian Organ Donor Register and may not realise there’s actually a more important action they need to take – to let their family know what they want to happen in the event of their death. Having that informed discussion will help to ensure those personal wishes are carried out.

The reforms driven forward by the new Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority will mean that the family of every potential donor will be asked by trained health professionals about organ and tissue donation should the situation arise. However, recent research shows that:

• Almost half (44 per cent) of Australians surveyed don’t realise that their next of kin will be asked to confirm their wishes about possible organ and tissue donation
• A third (31 per cent) have not informed any likely next-of-kin of their own wishes
• A quarter (26 per cent) of adults have never discussed organ and tissue donation with anyone close to them.

Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor John Horvath, said:

“New Year’s resolutions tend to be about individual self-improvement, but this year we are recommending a much simpler exercise: just talk.

“We already know that organ and tissue donation is an easy decision for many: four in five of us are willing to donate after death. Signing up to the register is not enough. Discussing that choice with friends and family isn’t always the most comfortable thing to do but it’s a critical part of the process. Not knowing what your loved ones would have wanted can make a terribly traumatic situation even harder, and contributes to Australia’s current low consent rates for organ and tissue donation.

“We all need to make a resolution and commit to having this critical conversation in 2009, to help save lives for years to come.”

Rolling out a world-leading reform package around organ and tissue transplantation has been one of the first actions of the Australian Government in 2009. The Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority, legally established today, is part of a $151million investment dedicated to improving donation rates through a new nationally coordinated approach.

Recruitment will shortly begin to build a new network of medical specialists and senior nurses who will focus on optimising organ and tissue donation in our hospitals. These professionals will not only play a major role in ensuring that the system continues to uphold the strictest of clinical, legal and ethical standards, but will also help implement reform to help improve Australia’s low rates of organ and tissue donation.

Media contact: Kay McNiece, Department of Health and Ageing 0412 132 585

Notes to Editors

The Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority was created under Commonwealth legislation on 1 January 2009. The authority will lead the national effort to lift Australia’s low rate of organ and tissue donation to meet the urgent and ongoing national demand for transplants. It will continue the Australian Government’s close partnerships with the states and territories, clinicians and the community to build a nationally coordinated system that will save Australian lives.

The statistics quoted in the release have been extracted from an 18-month-long research program into attitudes, awareness and behaviours around organ and tissue donation, commissioned by the Department of Health and Ageing and conducted in 2007 and 2008. The data was sourced from a national telephone survey of more than 1,700 adults across Australia.