Employers Face Difficulty Balancing Need For Safety Against Employees’ Privacy Rights. Focusing on patient confidentiality, the CBS Evening News (4/1, story 7, 2:15, Pelley) reported that in the US, “45 states have laws requiring or permitting mental health professionals to disclose if they believe a patient is dangerous.” CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues explained, however that even though “some privacy advocates agree that there are cases where warning law enforcement is necessary…they worry about a chilling effect on patients.” Chad Marlow, of the American Civil Liberties Union, was shown saying, “You might deter people from seeking mental health services in order to avoid disclosing things they want to keep private.” Meanwhile, “here in the US,” according to Pegues, “the Federal Aviation Administration mandates that airline pilots self-report mental health issues,” but “the FAA says it’s too early to discuss whether the protocols will be strengthened.”
In an article on the difficulties of balancing employers’ and the general public’s needs for safety against employees’ privacy rights and ability to work without suffering from the stigma of having a mental health disorder, the Wall Street Journal (4/2, Silverman, Feintzeig, Subscription Publication) reports that forensic psychiatrist Steven Hoge, MD, who chairs the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Psychiatry and the Law, explained that under certain limited circumstances, management can give orders to employees to undergo mental-health evaluations as a condition of keeping their employment.
Related Links:
— “After Airline Tragedy, New Focus on Mental Health at Work,” RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN and RACHEL FEINTZEIG, Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2015.