Research Projects
The Australian Centre for Health Law Research (ACHLR) undertakes a broad range of research projects relating to the law at end of life. Below are some of the end of life research projects the Centre delivers.
End of Life Law for Clinicians
End of Life Law for Clinicians (ELLC) is a free training program for medical practitioners, nurses, allied and other health professionals, and students about Australian laws relating to end of life decision-making. ELLC is funded by the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care and administered by the ACHLR, QUT, in collaboration with the Faculty of Health, QUT.
About the ELLC training program
Register for the training at the ELLC training portal, or find out more in our brochures below.
- ELLC Training Curriculum 2023-2026 (PDF file, 295.7 KB)
- ELLC flyer (PDF file, 278.1 KB)
- ELLC Module 12 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples and end of life law (PDF file, 451.6 KB)
- ELLC Module 13 Inclusive end of life decision-making in diverse populations (PDF file, 688.3 KB)
For health professionals and students
- ELLC for Medical Practitioners brochure (PDF file, 391.7 KB)
- ELLC for Nurses (PDF file, 324.4 KB)
- ELLC for Allied and other Health Professionals (PDF file, 378.7 KB)
- ELLC for General Practice (PDF file, 430.2 KB)
- ELLC Medical students brochure (PDF file, 455.0 KB)
- ELLC Nursing students brochure (PDF file, 415.5 KB)
- ELLC Health students brochure (PDF file, 497.0 KB)
- Transition to clinical practice case study (PDF file, 360.6 KB)
For primary, acute and aged care: Meeting quality and safety standards with ELLC
These guides outline how the ELLC training modules align with national quality and safety standards, and can support primary, community and acute care services as well as aged care providers to meet accreditation requirements.
- Meeting Quality and Practice Standards in Primary and Community Care (PDF file, 714.0 KB)
- Meeting Quality and Safety Standards in Acute Care (PDF file, 766.0 KB)
- Meeting Quality and Safety Standards in Aged Care (PDF file, 351.8 KB)
- Preparing for accreditation in aged care: Meeting Outcome 5.7 Palliative care and End-of-life Care, Clinical Care Standard (PDF file, 294.9 KB)
Aged care
This factsheet highlights the Top 10 End of Life Laws that aged care health professionals and providers need to know.
- Top 10 End of Life Laws in Aged Care (PDF file, 263.9 KB)
- Restrictive Practices in Aged Care (PDF file, 335.5 KB)
Advance care planning
ELLC's quick guide to advance care planning, developed in collaboration with Advance Care Planning Australia, Palliative Care Australia and HammondCare, can support health professionals to undertake advance care planning with the people they care for.
Participant information
- Participant information sheet ELLC Pilot Study (PDF file, 176.6 KB)
- Participant information sheet ELLC (PDF file, 92.5 KB)
Research publications
- Neller P, Feeney R, Willmott L, et al. Australian Indigenous people and treatment decision-making at end-of-life. Alt Law J 2024; 49(2).
- Feeney R, Willmott L, Neller P, et al. Online modules to improve health professionals' end-of-life law knowledge and confidence: a pre-post survey study. BMC Pall Care 2023; 22(1).
- White B, Willmott L, Feeney R, et al. Limitations in health professionals’ knowledge of end-of-life law: A cross-sectional survey. BMJ Supp & Pall Care 2021.
- Feeney R, Willmott L, Wilson J et al. Legal issues in end-of-life care for speech-language pathologists and social workers: A scoping review. Internat J Speech-Language Path 2023.
ARC Future Fellowship
Enhancing End-of-Life Decision-Making: Optimal Regulation of Voluntary Assisted Dying is an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship research project led by Professor Ben White, ACHLR, QUT.
Previous research projects
- National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Excellence in End of Life Care
- Dying in Pain
- Effective decision making support for people with cognitive disability
- Enhancing community knowledge and engagement with law at the end of life
- Reducing non-beneficial treatment at the End-of-Life 2018-2019
- Futile treatment at the end of life: legal, policy, sociological and economic perspectives
- Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining medical treatment from adults who lack capacity: The role of law in medical practice
- Enduring documents – improving the forms, improving the outcomes
- Families and generational asset transfers: making and challenging wills in contemporary Australia
- Improving service provision by legal practitioners to clients in relation to enduring powers of attorney and advance health directives
- Managing family objection to autopsy: A case study of the Queensland coronial system
- Investigating the coronial determination of suicide as a category of death