What is the professional duty when a client threatens another person and there is a credible risk?

• A. Maintain confidentiality and advise the client to seek legal counsel.
• B. Take no action until the client discloses more details.
• C. Notify the client's family but not the potential victim.
• D. Break confidentiality to warn the potential victim and/or take steps to protect, as required by law (Tarasoff duty to warn/protect).

Answer: (D)

When a client makes a credible threat to harm another person, the safety of that potential victim takes precedence over keeping the client’s information secret. This situation activates the Tarasoff duty to warn or protect, meaning clinicians are ethically and often legally required to take reasonable steps to prevent harm. If the threat is credible and specific, those steps typically include warning the potential victim and/or involving authorities, and taking other protective actions as mandated by law. The goal is to reduce risk and keep people safe, even if it means breaching confidentiality to some extent.

Maintaining confidentiality and advising the client to seek legal counsel in this moment treats safety as optional, which is not appropriate when there is a real threat. Waiting for more details or acting only after more disclosures occur delays protection and can lead to preventable harm. Notifying the family without addressing the actual risk to the identified potential victim also misses the central duty to warn or protect the person at risk. The recommended course—breaking confidentiality to warn the potential victim and/or take protective steps as required by law—directly aligns with protecting someone from imminent harm.