CO HB1271

Mental health providers are not liable for failure to warn or protect individuals unless a patient has communicated a serious threat of imminent physical violence against a specific person or persons, including those identifiable by association with a specific location or entity.

When a duty to warn exists, mental health providers must make reasonable and timely efforts to notify threatened persons, those responsible for threatened locations or entities, and appropriate law enforcement agencies, or take other protective action such as hospitalizing the patient.

Mental health providers are protected from civil liability for making warnings about violent behavior and are not subject to professional discipline when acting under the duty to warn provisions.

The bill's protections do not apply to negligent release of patients from mental health facilities or negligent failure to initiate involuntary 72-hour treatment and evaluation when a provider determines a person appears to have mental illness and poses an imminent danger to others.

Defines "mental health provider" to include physicians, social workers, psychiatric nurses, psychologists, and mental health hospitals, community mental health centers, clinics, or their staff.