Psychiatrists May Have Greater Obligation to Warn in States With Gun Restraining Order Laws

Psychiatrists practicing in one of the many states that have enacted gun violence restraining order laws may have a greater obligation to warn family members or law enforcement in cases of suicidal patients who own firearms, according to anarticle published inPsychiatric Services.In the wake of mass shooting tragedies around the country, 13 states have enacted gun violence restraining order laws, also known as extreme risk protective orders (ERPOs). The first five states to put such laws into effect were Connecticut, followed by Indiana, California, Washington, and Oregon, with the remaining states enacting them in 2018.These laws allow petitioners to have firearms removed from individuals at risk of harming themselves or others, and more states are considering such an approach, wrote William Frizzell, M.D., and Joseph Chien, D.O., of the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University.Psychiatrists and mental health professionals should determine how such laws might apply to practices in their states. “From a medical-legal perspective, invoking an ERPO law might be seen as a prudent, and perhaps even expected, intervention for suicidal patients with firearms. It might even be viewed as an extension ofTarasoff-like duties in cases of potential gun violence against others, ” Frizzell and Chien wrote.Because most of these laws are new, research is limited, but existing evidence shows that seizing guns from troubled individuals is associated with a reduction...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: duty to warn firearms gun violence Joseph Chien Psychiatric Services suicide William Frizzell Source Type: research