Abstract
Mental health professionals have been concerned recently about their liability for the actions of patients in their outpatient practices. The history of suits against clinicians for negligent release of inpatients extends back several decades since before the Tarasoff decision. The authors suggest that the same consumerism/victims' rights trends that resulted in Tarasoff and its progeny are likely to rebound again on forensic clinicians and that such pressures are likely to add to other political and social pressures that already complicate the treatment of forensic inpatients. They present three cases to illustrate the dilemmas involved in the release of forensic patients and argue that clinicians must bear significant responsibility for their current plight because of overstated claims of capacities to predict and treat aggressive behavior.
Footnotes
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Dr. Miller is training director, Dr. Doren is unit chief–therapeutic community, and Dr. Maier is clinical director, Forensic Center, Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, WI. Dr. Miller is clinical associate professor of psychiatry and lecturer in law, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and clinical associate professor of psychiatry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Dr. Maier is clinical assistant professor of psychiatry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Dr. Van Rybroek is unit chief–management unit, Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, WI. This article was based in part on a presentation made at the 18th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Ottawa, Canada, October 18, 1987. Address reprint requests to Dr. Miller, Training Director, Forensic Center, Mendota Mental Health Institute, 301 Troy Dr., Madison, WI 53704.
- Copyright © 1988, The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
