Abstract
Assessment of violence risk is a core competency for psychiatrists. A patient’s risk of violence is considered in everyday clinical decisions and is essential when a patient makes a threat toward another individual. Due to significant variability of Tarasoff-limiting statutes and case law from state to state, psychiatrists may be unsure of how to proceed when they determine that their patient presents a serious risk of harm to another. Is an explicit threat required to breach confidentiality to warn a potential victim? Is there legal justification to breach confidentiality in the absence of an explicit threat? What about a moral justification? Can a psychiatrist be found liable for a patient’s violence in the absence of an explicit threat? This chapter provides an overview of the legal framework underlying malpractice liability for patient violence, reviews principles of violence risk assessment, and offers practical risk management strategies to reduce psychiatrists’ risk of liability for patient violence.
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Saxton, A., Resnick, P. (2022). Patient Violence. In: Ash, P., Frierson, R.L., Friedman, S.H. (eds) Malpractice and Liability in Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91975-7_13
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