Mental health worker fired after reporting client searched for child porn on computer.

The client, John Gribble, is charged with sexually abusing a child after a DVD with photos of nude children was found at his house.

The Missoulian reported Wednesday that an employee of Three Rivers Mental Health Solutions contacted police about Gribble on Oct. 17.
The employee first told her supervisors, who told her not to report Gribble. Three Rivers administrator Shea Hennelly says reports that break medical confidentiality must include the names and address of the child involved and the extent of the child’s injuries.

“In order to provide mental health services, we can’t engage in dual roles. We’re not allowed to go to police” unless actual child abuse is observed, Hennelly told The Missoulian. “She didn’t witness someone abusing a child. What this woman reported to this office was she saw the tab of Web browsers that said teenage girls. That’s a lot different.”

Not sure if all the circumstances of the case have been released, but I would say that she was doing her job - and that informing the authorities of the events would have been proper. It’s a tough call, but the mental health employee should have been able to keep the job. It was the morally and ethically correct thing to do.