The duty to warn arises when a patient has communicated an explicit threat of imminent serious physical harm or death to a clearly identified or identifiable victim or victims, and the patient has the apparent intent and ability to carry out such a threat.

What is meant by a duty to warn and a duty to protect?

The duty to warn refers to a counselor's obligation to warn identifiable victims. The duty to protect is a counselor's duty to reveal confidential client information in the event that the counselor has reason to believe that a third party may be harmed.

Why is the duty to warn an ethical issue?

In our Code of Ethics we have the following declaration: B3. Duty to Warn When counsellors become aware of their client's Intent or potential to place others in clear or imminent danger, they use reasonable care to give threatened persons such warnings as are essential to avert foreseeable dangers.