RIGHT or WRONG? Counseling liabilities

Posted: 11/02/07

RIGHT or WRONG?
Counseling liabilities

Our church recognizes the need for a counseling ministry in our community. What kinds of legal liabilities should we be concerned about?

Before considering legal liabilities, your church should address ethical and practical questions. Does your church view providing professional mental health services as a means to increase membership and converts? Offering counseling services as a means of evangelism may be false advertising and a conflict of interest. Will the counseling offered be traditional marriage or premarital counseling conducted by pastors or psychological counseling and treatment? Who will be the counselors?

Your church would not consider starting a health ministry in which unlicensed, untrained lay people perform surgery. Allowing psychological treatment by untrained people is as serious a mistake. Diagnosing mental illness may be more difficult than diagnosing appendicitis.

Would your church resources be better spent on other ministries? The cost of hiring a properly trained M.D. psychiatrist or Ph.D. psychologist and providing professional liability insurance could equal several staff salaries.

That brings us to the kinds of legal liabilities you should recognize. The counselor needs appropriate training, compliance with state-required education and licensing, and a thorough background check. Church ministries might be exempted from state regulations, but using separation of church and state to justify foisting improperly trained counselors on the public creates ethical and legal problems.

Your church can be sued for negligence in hiring or training those who perform counseling. Potential sexual abuse or harassment claims create another concern. An actual or imagined affair between the professional counselor and client could damage all church ministries.

The dilemma is that while the church is legally responsible for the activities of a counselor it employs, the counselor cannot divulge his or her confidential communications with patients. While legally responsible for any negligence or intentional misconduct of staff or contract counselors, the church cannot monitor or control their conduct.

Your church should consider what you are trying to accomplish. It cannot be all things to all people. A church can provide comfort and support for those with psychological problems. Many operate successful support groups for people with problems stemming from illness, addiction or divorce. All church members can be the presence of Christ to others. That is a far different concept than offering mental health treatment that should only be undertaken after weighing all spiritual, legal and ethical issues.

Cynthia Holmes, attorney

Former moderator, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

Clayton, Mo.

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.

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