therapist duty of care to clients in group therapy

Dawe v Bar-Levav & Assoc, __ Mich App __ (#269147, 8/12/2010)
On remand from the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals held that a treating professional has a duty to take reasonable precautions to ensure that the patients assigned to her therapy group were healthy enough to participate in group therapy. It is then a question for jury whether the therapist’s decision to place a former patient into group therapy with other clients falls below the general standard of care applicable to medical professionals and whether that decision was the cause of plaintiff's injuries. In this case a former group therapy client came to the office, drew a handgun, shot and killed one of the psychiatrists, and fired into the group therapy room, killing one patient and wounding others. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff and on appeal the court noted that "a psychiatrist-patient relationship is a 'special relationship' that imposes a duty to protect another from harm by a third party." It can thereby be foreseeable that a patient who was not healthy enough to participate in group therapy might be or become a danger to the other group members.