[Jaidyn]

HIPPA. Health care workers can no longer report specific persons who wish to harm themselves or others to the police. I was in the field and retired in 2008. We had a Duty to Warn, if we thought a client was harmful to himself or others. I can't imagine the state changing this rule, since it began because a client murdered his ex girlfriend in California in 1976. I believe the case was State versus Tarasoff. A month or so before I retired, a client said he 'might as well be dead'. He said that often, but even so, I watched him closely. He bought a can of Pepsi from a machine, and I saw him pour it out, and I ran towards him. In an instant, he ripped the can in half, and acted like he was going to cut himself. I talked him out of the can, an then, called 911.

[Spktyr]

Under HIPPA, yes, you have a Duty To Warn, but only if the patient names a specific person. And then you can’t tell anyone who the person making the threat is.

Cute, huh?