The Catholic Church has issued a warning to its clergy in Washington state: Any priest who complies with a new law requiring the reporting of child abuse confessions to authorities will be excommunicated.
https://www.newsweek.com/catholic-church-excommunicate-priests-following-new-us-state-law-2069039
Therapists are allowed to maintain confidentiality.
Is this true? I thought with things like danger to oneself or others they’re mandated reporters.
They have some obligations in cases of child endangerment or suicide, direct threats to others. I’m not sure of the details, if it’s similar expectations or what.
You’re right, that commenter doesn’t know what they’re talking about
They are.
Source: wife is a therapist. She is also ethically obligated to (and does) disclose her mandatory reporting obligations to new clients.
That’s an interesting point. Maybe priests should have similar requirements, licensing, oversight, and malpractice liability.
More the point is that therapists don’t have the same obligations as doctors. Therapists can keep confidentiality of things that doctors aren’t allowed to. The guy i responded to was comparing priests to doctors, but a better comparison would be comparing them to therapists.
Are therapists not mandatory reporters in your jurisdiction?
They have more patient confidentiality than doctors, but I’m not sure of the specifics.
If you don’t mind my asking, which country are you in? Therapists are mandatory reporters for child abuse everywhere in Canada/USA.
Also in the UK.
I don’t mind you asking except that you are missing my point, which is that doctors have less patient confidentiality than therapists. I say this to contradict the original assertion that doctors report things, so priests should too, which is faulty logic. Comparing therapists to priests would be a better analogy in this context.
Ah I think that’s the disconnect. In my country they’re both mandatory reporters so the distinction seemed irrelevant to me.
Yep
No they are not.
Therapists are subject to mandatory reporting laws.