Tarasoff

In 1974: Prosinjit Podder, an Indian Graduate student, studying at Berkeley, begins to date Tatiana Tarasoff. They kiss. He feels that she is his intended. He gets upset when she expresses interest in other men. He goes to counseling at the University Health Service. He tells the psychologist, Dr. Moore, that he wants to get a gun and shoot Tarasoff. Dr. Moore sends letter to campus police, they investigate Podder, they think he is not a danger, tell him to avoid Tatiana. When Tatiana returns from Brazil at the end of summer, Podder stalks, stabs her to death.

Tatiana's parents sue the mental health department, saying that the therapist should have warned Tatiana of Podder's threats. The court rules that based on confidentiality, there is no cause of action. The parents appeal and win the case. The outcome: “the therapist bears a duty to use reasonable care to give threatened persons warnings as are essential to avert foreseeable danger.” (i.e. the therapist has to warn the intended victim and the police to be sure that they can take necessary actions for the victim's safety.)


I had to report Tarasoff this week for the second time in one year. The patient had been stalking someone with a loaded weapon in car, waiting for the right time to assault with intent to murder. The Tarasoff report was an involved process taking several interviews from the patient until she agreed to give me contact info of the intended victim. It also involved lengthy track down of a police officer willing to take my call and take the threat seriously. Apparently, not all police officers are familiar with therapists' Tarasoff mandate. And not all people (in general) want to go through the extra steps to get their job done right.

Too add to the mix, I reported the patient as unsafe to her children based on active impulsivity and violent behaviors with current threats and planned out murder threat to another. As I finally get the police officer to work with me, I simultaneously find out that the patient's children have been removed from her custody. So, my efforts resulted in breaking up a family. (I'm reminding myself that this is probably a good thing, but it's hard to know that you separated a mother from her young children and young children from their mother.)

Fortunately, all is protected, the patient is locked up for the moment, we will work on a safe discharge plan. Hopefully getting back on psychiatric medication will help.

In the meantime, I'm skipping the news and going straight to bed. I've had enough listening to violence for one week.