TW: Suicide 14 yo, physiologist legal responsibility

[hoelscher]

Hi All,

I'm new to this, I have a 14 yo daughter who is self harming and has confided in me about her suicide attempts, on a handful of occasions. She regularly states that she wants to kill herself. She asked me in confidence to keep it a secret from her father and anyone.  I told her I would give her the opportunity to tell her father that she lives with 50% of the time. However, after the week of being with him she refused to tell him and said she would never. 

I since found out that the psychologist (4 years into her profession so not fully qualified) that she sees (approx 5 appts now) knew about the self harming and suicide attempts. 

When I told the psychologist about it, she said she knew about it but hadn't informed neither me or her father.  What is her legal responsibility to inform one or both parents?  I live in Queensland, Australia.

Thank you for your time.

[Sophia-RO]

Hello @hoelscher I am sorry to hear about what you are going through at the moment. It sounds like things are really tough for you. It sounds like you are really supportive of your daughter and have a good bond with her as she has confided in you and reached out for support. You mentioned that your daughter's psychologist had not informed you or your daughters father about your daughter's self harm or suicide attempts. Have you had the chance to discuss this directly with your daughter's psychologist and to express your concerns? Do you think having a discussion with your daughter and your daughters psychologist together would be helpful? 

Also, you mentioned that your daughter has self-harmed before and attempted suicide. I wanted to ask whether you have any concerns about your daughter's current safety?

Psychologists do have specific ethical guidelines regarding confidentiality that they must follow that guide their decision making. I have found a copy of it here if you would like to have a read . Here is another page that discusses the procedure of making a complaint regarding a psychologist's behaviour if you feel that they may have breached some ethics. As mentioned in the page, the best place to start is to express your concerns with the psychologist and attempt to resolve them. Hope this helps! 

I also just wanted to let you know that I have edited your post slightly to fit in with our community guidelines, which can be read here .

[Bre-RO]

Hey there @hoelscher 

I just wanted to chime in here to thank you for sharing with us. 

It sounds like your daughter is going through a tough time, and we'd like to support you both in any way we can.

So I thought I'd pop a few links to services in case that's something you want to look into at some stage: 

• Headspace has an information page here for parents - which might be good to check out. If you decide to find a new psychologist, they might be a good place to start. 
• Neami is a national community mental health service, and you can search for services in your area using their directory here. 

I can imagine how stressed and worried you must be right now. If you have any more questions or concerns, please let us know. We are here to support you through this!