Margaret Brown

Ms Margaret Brown

School of Society and Culture

College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences

Available For Media Comment.

I am an Adjunct Research Fellow at UniSA Justice and Society. For many years I lectured in the School of Social Work at UniSA and to allied health professionals. I also taught medical ethics in the School of Medicine at the University of Adelaide. My current work involves research, consulting and policy development in the areas of advance care directives, decision-making capacity and ethical decision making at the end of life including resuscitation decisions for older people. I am also an advocate for examining road trauma, in particular pedestrian safety, as an issue of social and medical ethics.
I was the Deputy Chair of the SA Advance Directive Review Committee (the recommendations of which formed the basis of the Advance Care Directives Act 2013 (SA)), and also Deputy Chair of the End-of-Life Working Group which developed the Resuscitation Plan 7 Step Pathway. I was appointed to the End-of-Life Ministerial Advisory Committee in 2013, the End of Life Care Strategy Program Board in 2017 and the Advance Care Planning Oversight Group in 2020. I helped shape the 2023 amendments to the ACD Act.
I served on the Guardianship Board and I have been a consultant to the SA Office of the Public Advocate on several projects on supported decision-making. I am a research consultant on the NDIA-funded Living my Life Capacity Building Project, with OPA and formerly with SAHMRI (now at UniSA). The aim of the project is to apply supported decision-making principles to increase the capacity, wellbeing and resilience of people with a psychosocial disability and build on the current delivery of accessible and inclusive mainstream services. I was also a consultant for the Supported Decision Making Project with the Department of Human Services.
I run seminars and lectures on advance care directives for health professionals and the community, including lectures organised by Members of Parliament for their constituents. Since the implementation of the ACD Act in SA I have developed a model of three workshops to assist people in completing their advance care directive document. I have developed a non-statutory document My Life Decisions for people who are unable to complete the legal advance care directive document.
I am also a former director and a current active member of Bushland Conservation Company Pty Ltd.

  • Ethics and law making associated with dying
  • Pedestrian safety as a social and medical issue
  • Advance directives (living wills and enduring powers), advance care planning, end-of-life decisions, loss of decision-making capacity and the implementation of the Advance Care Directives Act 2013
  • Decision-making capacity and supported decision making
  • Building capacity for people with disability on the NDIS
  • The ethical and legal implications of the resuscitation decisions documented in patients' case notes.
  • Implementation of the 7-Step Pathway resuscitation guidelines throughout South Australia
  • International research on advance directives and enduring powers
  • Palliative care, including access for those dying at home, in the acute hospital setting and in an aged care facility
  • Older people living alone in the community.

Year Citation
2025 Brown, M., & Leeson, K. (2025). Suicide, Ethics and the Law: parliamentary Debates on Suicide in South Australia. Journal Of Law And Medicine, 31(4), 709-720.
2023 Brown, M. (2023). Can doctors be compelled to prolong the life of a dying patient? The ongoing medical, legal and social issues. Journal of law and medicine, 30(1), 155-165.
WoS1
2022 Dignam, C., Brown, M., Horwood, C., & Thompson, C. H. (2022). The impact of standardised goals of care documentation on the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, and intensive care unit admissions in older patients: a retrospective observational analysis. Australian Health Review, 46(3), 325-330.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2 Europe PMC2
2021 Dignam, C., Brown, M., & Thompson, C. H. (2021). Moving from “Do Not Resuscitate” Orders to Standardized Resuscitation Plans and Shared-Decision Making in Hospital Inpatients. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 7, 233372142110034.
DOI Scopus20 WoS17 Europe PMC14
2019 Dignam, C., Thomas, J., Brown, M., & Thompson, C. H. (2019). The impact of language on the interpretation of resuscitation clinical care plans by doctors. A mixed methods study.. PloS one, 14(11), e0225338.
DOI Scopus6 WoS6 Europe PMC5
2018 Dignam, C., Brown, M., & Thompson, C. H. (2018). Changes in resuscitation and end-of-life documentation in older patients’ clinical case notes: A comparison of 2011 and 2017 practice. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 38(1), 28-32.
DOI Scopus8 WoS8 Europe PMC8
2018 Brown, M. (2018). The South Australian Advance Care Directives Act 2013: how has the decision-making paradigm changed?. Journal of law and medicine, 25(2), 538-548.
WoS2
2017 Brown, M., & Drummond, C. (2017). Advance care directives are an important part of good healthcare. Internal medicine journal, 47(8), 975-976.
DOI Scopus3 WoS1 Europe PMC2
2015 Soccio, J., Brown, M., Comino, E., & Friesen, E. (2015). Pap smear screening, pap smear abnormalities and psychosocial risk factors among women in a residential alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(12), 2858-2866.
DOI Scopus13 Europe PMC14
2014 Soccio, J., Brown, M., Comino, E., & Friesen, E. (2014). Women with problematic drug and alcohol use have higher rates of trauma and abnormal pap smears.. Australian Nursing Midwifery Journal, 22(1), 35.
2014 Brown, M., Ruberu, R., & Thompson, C. H. (2014). Inadequate resuscitation documentation in older patients' clinical case notes. Internal Medicine Journal, 44(1), 93-96.
DOI Scopus8 WoS9 Europe PMC5
2013 Crawford, G., Burgess, T., Young, M., Brooksbank, M., & Brown, M. (2013). A patient-centred model of care incorporating a palliative approach: A framework to meet the needs of people with advanced COPD?. Progress in Palliative Care, 21(5), 286-294.
DOI Scopus8 WoS7
2013 Burgess, T., Young, M., Crawford, G., Brooksbank, M., & Brown, M. (2013). Best-practice care for people with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: the potential role of a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease care co-ordinator. Australian Health Review, 37(4), 474-481.
DOI Scopus6 WoS6 Europe PMC4
2013 Crawford, G., Brooksbank, M., Brown, M., Burgess, T., & Young, M. (2013). Unmet needs of people with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: recommendations for change in Australia. Internal Medicine Journal, 43(2), 183-190.
DOI Scopus40 WoS41 Europe PMC29
2012 Brown, M., Brooksbank, M., Burgess, T., Young, M., & Crawford, G. (2012). The experience of patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and advance care-planning: a South Australian perspective. Journal of Law and Medicine, 20(2), 400-409.
Scopus15 WoS16 Europe PMC8
2012 Thompson, C., & Brown, M. (2012). Should resuscitation replace good communication in the care of elderly patients?. Medical Journal of Australia, 197(2), 89.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2008 Brown, M. (2008). Dark dreams: Australian refugee stories (A) : No place like home: Australian refugee stories (B). Journal of Family Studies, 14(1), 137-138.
DOI
2008 Brown, M., & Jarrad, S. (2008). Putting 'the powers' in place: Barriers for people with memory loss in planning for the future. Journal of law and medicine, 15(4), 530-537.
Scopus10 WoS10 Europe PMC6
2005 Brown, M., Grbich, C., Maddocks, I., Parker, D., Roe, P., & Willis, E. (2005). Documenting end of life decisions in residential aged care facilities in South Australia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 29(1), 85-90.
DOI Scopus27 WoS27 Europe PMC21
2005 Brown, M., Fisher, J., Brumley, D., Ashby, M., & Milliken, J. (2005). Advance directives in action in a regional palliative care service: 'Road testing' the provisions of the Medical Treatment Act 1988 (Vic). Journal of Law and Medicine, 13(2), 186-190.
Scopus10 WoS9 Europe PMC7
2005 Wilson, D., Justice, C., Thomas, R., Sheps, S., MacAdam, M., & Brown, M. (2005). End-of-life care volunteers: a systematic review of the literature. Health Services Management Research, 18(4), 244-257.
DOI Scopus51 WoS41 Europe PMC34
2005 Grbich, C., Maddocks, I., Parker, D., Brown, M., Willis, E., Piller, N., & Hofmeyer, A. (2005). Identification of patients with noncancer diseases for palliative care services. Palliative and Supportive Care, 3(1), 5-14.
DOI Scopus34 Europe PMC23
2005 Grbich, C., Maddocks, I., Parker, D., Brown, M., Willis, E., Hofmeyer, A., & Piller, N. (2005). Palliative care in aged care facilities for residents with a non-cancer disease: results of a survey of aged care facilities in South Australia. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 24(2), 108-113.
DOI Scopus10 WoS11
2005 Parker, D., Grbich, C., Brown, M., Maddocks, I., Willis, E., & Roe, P. (2005). A palliative approach or specialist palliative care? What happens in aged care facilities for residents with a noncancer diagnosis. Journal of Palliative Care, 21(2), 80-87.
DOI Scopus22 WoS20 Europe PMC18
2003 Brown, M. (2003). The law and practice associated with advance directives in Canada and Australia: Similarities, differences and debates. Journal of Law and Medicine, 11(1), 59-76.
Scopus11 Europe PMC5
2003 Pincombe, J., Brown, M., & McCutcheon, H. (2003). No time for dying: A study of the care of dying patients in two acute care Australian hospitals. Journal of Palliative Care, 19(2), 77-86.
DOI Scopus32 WoS33 Europe PMC25
2003 Pincombe, J., Brown, M., & McCutcheon, H. (2003). No time for dying : a study of the care of dying patients in two acute care Australian hospitals. Journal of palliative care, 3(1), 40.
DOI
2002 Brown, M. (2002). Participating in end of life decisions. Australian family physician.
2002 Brown, M. (2002). Participating in end of life decisions. The role of general practitioners.. Australian Family Physician, 31(1), 60-62.
Scopus16 Europe PMC11
2000 Brown, M. (2000). A good death. Principles of palliative care are yet to be applied in acute hospitals.. BMJ Clinical Research Ed, 320(7243), 1206.
DOI Scopus6 WoS4 Europe PMC5
2000 Pincombe, J., Brown, M., Thorne, D., Ballantyne, A., & McCutcheon, H. (2000). Care of Dying Patients in the Acute Hospital. Progress in Palliative Care, 8(2), 71-77.
DOI
2000 Pincombe, J., Brown, M., Thorne, D., Ballantyne, A., & McCutcheon, H. (2000). Care of Dying Patients in the Acute Hospital settings. Progress in Palliative Care.
1997 Brown, M. (1997). Who would you choose? Appointing an agent with a medical power of attorney.. Australian Journal on Ageing.

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2020 - 2022 External Supervisor Do Not Resuscitate? The impact of standardised resuscitation documentation on the approach to hospital care in older patients Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Colette Michelle Dignam

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