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Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Showing posts with label Sex with Patient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sex with Patient. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Prominent Hilton Head psychologist’s license revoked; Sex with patient alleged

By Alice Stice
The State (South Carolina News Site)
Originally published May 31, 2013

A prominent Hilton Head Island psychologist has had his license permanently revoked for having a sexual relationship with a patient that included intimate encounters in his office, according to an order from the S.C. Board of Examiners in Psychology.

Dr. Howard Rankin, a psychologist, neuropsychologist and author who has been featured in the national media, admitted the relationship to an investigator from the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing & Regulation and is barred from practice after an April disciplinary hearing before the board, records show.

Rankin has been featured as an expert on addiction, weight loss and other fields in The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, and has appeared as a guest on CNN and ABC’s “The View” and “20/20.”

He declined to comment for this article.

According to the board’s order, a female patient diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder began seeing Rankin for therapy in 2005. The patient, referred to only by her initials in the order, had attempted suicide on several occasions and had been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment more than once, the order says.

The entire story is here.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Physician Congressman Fined for Having Sex With 2 Patients

By Robert Lowes
Medscape Medical News
Originally published on May 24, 2014

Rep. Scott DesJarlais, MD (R-TN), was fined $500 by the state medical board in Tennessee for having sexual relationships with 2 female patients in 2000, according to a consent order approved by the board on May 22.

The Board of Medical Examiners of Tennessee also reprimanded Dr. DesJarlais, characterizing his behavior as "unprofessional conduct."

Dr. DesJarlais, a general practitioner who was first elected to represent Tennessee's Fourth Congressional District in 2010, signed the consent order on May 20.

The consent order describes in bare-bones fashion what was laid out in voluminous detail about Dr. DesJarlais' personal life during and after his 2012 reelection campaign. From roughly January 2000 to May 2000, Dr. DesJarlais "had a sexual relationship with 2 female patients," the order states. "No documentation exists to show whether or not the physician-patient relationship was severed prior to the commencement of a romantic relationship with either female patient."

The board fined Dr. DesJarlais $250 for each patient. He also is responsible for the state's cost of prosecuting the case, up to $1000.

The rest of the story is here.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Should I Report My Ex-Wife for Sleeping With Her Patient?

By Chuck Klosterman
The New York Times - The Ethicist
Originally published April 26, 2013

My ex-wife is a physician. We divorced when I found out she was having an affair with one of her H.I.V.-positive patients. I feel compelled to tell the state medical licensing board and the professional societies to which she belongs about her affair. My reasons for doing so are that I feel an intense urge to retaliate her breach of trust and that she potentially exposed me to H.I.V. (fortunately, I tested negative). I also know that, as a physician myself, I should report her to protect other patients, so that she may get increased supervision at her workplace and treatment if needed. Should I report her even though my main motivation is revenge?

The entire article is here.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Pa. Supreme Court rules general practitioners not held to sex prohibitions

Prohibitions stands for mental health care providers

By Zack Needles
The Legal Intelligencer
Originally published October 15, 2012

In a case of first impression, the state Supreme Court has ruled that general practitioner doctors are not barred from having consensual sex with a patient, even if they are also providing "incidental mental health treatment" to the patient.
In so doing, the court has refused to extend the prohibition that prevents mental health physicians from having consensual sex with their patients -- and makes those who do susceptible to medical malpractice suit -- to general practitioners and family doctors.

In Thierfelder v. Wolfert, the high court ruled 5-1 -- suspended Justice Joan Orie Melvin did not participate in the decision -- to reverse a divided May 2009 Superior Court ruling that both general practitioners and psychiatrists "need to maintain the same trust when rendering psychological care."

Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, writing for the majority, said that even what might constitute an ethical violation does not necessarily amount to a legal violation.

"The question is not whether this court condones appellant's actions, nor even whether his actions amounted to a violation of medical ethics," Justice Castille said. "We hold here only that, as a general practitioner, appellant was under no specific or 'heightened' duty in tort to refrain from sexual relations with his patient under these circumstances."

Monday, August 13, 2012

Psychologist Carrie E. Schaffer suspended over sex with former patient

PsychCrime Database
Originally published August 11, 2012

On April 11, 2012, the Virginia Board of Psychology indefinitely suspended Carrie E. Schaffer, Ph.D.

According to the Board’s findings of fact, As of April 2011, Dr. Schaffer continued to be involved in an intimate and sexual relationship with a former client, which was the subject of an August 2010 Board Consent Order.

The entire information is here.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Psychologist gets jail time for sex with patient


By Bruce Vielmetti
The Journal Sentinel

An Oak Creek psychologist convicted of starting a sexual relationship with a longtime patient in 2005 was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail.

Dr. Adamczak
Jeffrey Adamczak, 48, faced up to 7 1/2 years for sexual exploitation by a therapist.

But Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Jacob Manian said the state wasn't seeking prison, just accountability.

"This case has always been about protecting patients," Manian told Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet.

Adamczak made a public apology to his wife for the affair and the public spectacle. He said it never should have happened and he'd never forgive himself.

"I'm truly paying the price for infidelity," he said.

Dallet corrected Adamczak, saying she wasn't sentencing him for having an affair, but for abusing the trust patients put in their psychotherapists.

"You took advantage of that relationship, used it and turned it around into a sexual relationship," she said. "That's the serious part."

The whole story can be found here.

Stories related to Dr. Adamczak can be found here.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Psychologist found guilty of sexual relationship with patient

By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel
Published September 2, 2011
An Oak Creek psychologist was found guilty Friday of starting a sexual relationship with a longtime patient in 2005.
Jeffrey Adamczak, 48, faces up to 71/2 years in prison for sexual exploitation by a therapist at his sentencing Oct. 13. Jurors deliberated about two hours before reaching the verdict after a weeklong trial.
Adamczak was charged in August 2010. The victim, with whom he carried on a yearlong affair before she broke it off in 2006, reported Adamczak to authorities in March 2010 after she became convinced that he was again having sexual contact with patients.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet directed that the woman not be named in news reports.
A second former patient also testified that Adamczak had sexual contact with her in 2004, and two other former patients described what they considered inappropriate sexual comments from him during therapy. Adamczak flatly denied those allegations.
His attorney, Gerald Boyle, told jurors in closing arguments that jealousy drove the woman to destroy Adamczak, and said his client's testimony and office records showed the affair didn't start until after he had closed the woman's file, ending the therapist relationship.
The woman, a 40-year-old physical therapist, had been in near weekly counseling with Adamczak for about three years when he initiated sexual contact with her at a session in February 2005, after she told him she had filed for divorce from her husband.

Timing questioned

At trial, both parties testified about a memorable tryst at a Milwaukee hotel suite, replete with candles, special music and rose petals scattered near the whirlpool tub.
But when she was interviewed earlier by police, the woman said she couldn't recall the exact date, or the hotel where she and Adamczak had the experience they referred to as "Paris."
And that, his attorney argued to jurors Friday, was a big red flag on her credibility.
"If she can't remember "Paris,' " Boyle said, jurors shouldn't believe her testimony about exactly when she first had sex with Adamczak.
The timing of the first encounters was a key question for jurors. The woman testified it was in February 2005, just after she had filed for divorce, and that her therapist initiated three sexual episodes before finally telling her she could no longer be his patient "on paper."
Adamczak testified she came on to him, in late March 2005, several weeks after he had determined she no longer needed counseling and closed her file.
The entire story can be found here.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Psychologist withdraws SJC appeal on license

BY: Colman M Herman and Bruce Mohl
CommonWealth
A female psychologist who had sex with a former patient is withdrawing her court appeal seeking the return of her license.

Brookline psychologist Mary O’Neill acknowledged having a sexual relationship with her patient, Eric MacLeish, just weeks after his therapy sessions ended. The standard punishment in such cases is permanent license revocation, but O’Neill filed an appeal with the state Supreme Judicial Court arguing that her license should be only temporarily suspended because her lapse in judgment was caused by the collapse of her own marriage.

The case was scheduled to be heard next month, but SJC Clerk Susan Mellen said O’Neill’s attorney told her he is withdrawing the appeal. Mellen said some paperwork must be completed before the withdrawal is official, but she says she has already told the SJC justices not to bother studying the case files. The Associated Press reported that O’Neill’s attorney  confirmed he was withdrawing the appeal, but gave no reason for the decision. The attorney could not be reached by CommonWealth.

The case was the focus of a lengthy article on CommonWealth’s website that dealt with the legal issues involved as well as O’Neill’s high-profile patient, MacLeish. MacLeish is an attorney who represented many of the clients who sued the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston alleging priests had sexually abused them. The case brought MacLeish national attention, but court records indicate it also scarred him emotionally and made him realize that he had been sexually abused as a child at the hands of a teacher at a boarding school in England and by a scoutmaster associated with the school.

In 2004, MacLeish turned to O’Neill for help. She diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder and treated him for 10 sessions between August and September 2004. Shortly after those sessions ended, the two were sleeping together.

Linda Jorgenson, a Massachusetts attorney who has represented hundreds of people who have claimed their therapists abused them sexually, said she couldn’t understand why O'Neill would withdraw her appeal. "Her briefs have been filed. All that is left is for the oral argument to take place in September,” she said. “I don't see anything that she had to lose by waiting for the court to issue its ruling."

Thanks to Gary Schoener for the information.

The reader can find the earlier blog post here.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Psychologist Seeks Return of License

By Colman Herman
CommonWealth
June 22, 2011



A female psychologist is asking the state's Supreme Judicial Court for her license back even though she violated one of the cardinal rules of her profession by having sex with a former patient.

The standard punishment for someone in the medical and related professions who has sex with a patient or former patient is permanent revocation of his or her license. Officials at several of the boards that oversee health professionals said they couldn’t recall an instance where a practitioner who had sex with a patient failed to lose his or her license.

But Brookline psychologist Mary O'Neill says she deserves another chance. She acknowledges beginning a sexual relationship with her patient, Eric MacLeish, just weeks after his therapy sessions ended, yet says her license shouldn’t be permanently revoked because her lapse in judgment was caused by a marriage that had collapsed.

O’Neill petitioned a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to review her license revocation by the Board of Registration in Psychology.  Subsequently, she and the board jointly asked the full court to hear the case, which it agreed to do. Oral arguments are scheduled for this fall.

O’Neill is arguing that the psychology board “arbitrarily and capriciously” refused to consider the mitigating evidence she presented. Rather than revoking her license, she says the board should have suspended her license for a year and then allowed her to resume work on a probationary basis for a year. She says she would continue to receive personal psychotherapy and have her work supervised by a peer. O’Neill also says she would do 100 hours of community service.

The psychology board’s regulations adopt the code of conduct of the American Psychology Association. The code states that “psychologists do not engage in sexual intimacies with current therapy clients/patients” nor with “former clients for at least two years after cessation of therapy.” Beyond two years, sex between a psychologist and patient is permitted only if the therapist can prove there has been no exploitation. The regulations also say it is not a defense to say the patient consented. The regulations were crafted to prevent psychologists from exploiting the tremendous power they often have over their patients and former patients.

In its April 2010 decision, the psychology board held that O’Neill’s marriage crisis “no doubt exacted a significant emotional toll” on her and that her “marriage crisis can be understood to have ‘clouded’ her judgment.” But the board nonetheless revoked her license, saying her care was the “antithesis of treatment” and her “conduct abrogates a basic tenet of the psychology profession: trust.”

The entire article can be found here.

Thanks to Ken Pope for this story.