Student Making Threats Against My Daughter

SodiumFree
Fri, 21 Sep 2012 14:55:45 +0000

calla1:

The situation reminds me of the situation mental health professionals often find themselves in when presented with information that someone MAY have been abused or MAY be in danger. As mandated reporters, mental health professionals have a legal obligation to notify authorities. It is not their job to determine how valid the threat is. It is their job to report and to let the authorities sort out the validity of the threat. In fact, it is illegal for these professionals to delay a report out of concern for potentially “labeling” or traumatizing an innocent person.



calla1, could you clarify this, and maybe give a cite? It’s my understanding that the “mandated reporters” obligation applies only in child abuse and neglect situations.

Outside of that, a mental health professional’s duty to warn is a complicated issue, because there is such an obvious tension with the important duty of confidentiality. (This is probably obvious, but if a client is not assured that the therapist will be very strict about confidentiality, the client will be hesitant to disclose thoughts and feelings, which would seriously undermine the therapeutic process.)

In any case, the duty to warn varies from state to state, and I believe it is not nearly as broad as you say. For example, [in California](http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/CIV/5/d1/2/s43.92), a psychotherapist is subject to liability for a failure to warn only “where the patient has communicated to the psychotherapist a serious threat of physical violence against a reasonably identifiable victim or victims.” A disclosure outside of that limited circumstance could expose the psychotherapist to liability for breach of the duty of confidentiality.

None of this applies to the situation in this thread – except perhaps by analogy – but I wouldn’t want readers here underestimating the seriousness of a psychotherapist’s duty of confidentiality.