11.4 mitigating liability exposures

Child and adolescent psychiatrists often treat children whose parents are involved in divorce or custody matters, some of which may be contentious. This issue is the most frequent call that child and adolescent psychiatrists seek advice on from risk management through the AACAP-sponsored professional liability program. It is fraught with many pitfalls and issues that can occur despite the child and adolescent psychiatrist ’s best intention to assist the child/adolescent and one or both parents. A parent may present a child and adolescent psychiatrist with a court order for custody that he/she may not know how to interpret and may be unable to determine who has the ability to make medical decisions for the child/ado lescent.
Source: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Clinical Perspectives 11 Source Type: research