Clinician tool
NH mental health law quick reference
AI-assisted — clinician review required.Prompts, checklists, and any suggested language here are a scaffold, not clinical advice. Confirm accuracy, apply your professional judgment, and follow your agency's policies and NH statute before anything enters the record.
Reference only — this is not legal advice. Statutes are summarized and simplified for orientation, RSA numbers and requirements change, and application depends on the specific facts. Always read the current RSA text, follow your agency’s policies, and consult legal counsel or the relevant NH licensing board before acting.
New Hampshire narrows the Tarasoff-style duty: a mental-health provider’s duty to protect arises only when a client communicates a serious threat of physical violence against a clearly identified or reasonably identifiable victim. The duty is discharged by making reasonable efforts to communicate the threat to the victim and to notify law enforcement.
- Trigger: an actual threat of serious physical violence + an identifiable (or reasonably identifiable) victim.
- The duty is to make reasonable efforts to warn the victim and notify police — not necessarily to hospitalize.
- RSA 329:31 addresses physicians; RSA 330-A:35 provides the parallel limitation-of-liability and duty for licensed mental-health practitioners.
- Disclosure to discharge this duty is a recognized exception to confidentiality.
Practice pointer
Document the threat verbatim, your risk reasoning, consultation obtained, and every notification (who, when, how). The Duty-to-warn documentation tool mirrors this.
Sources to verify against: the current text of the New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated (RSA) at gencourt.state.nh.us, the NH Board of Mental Health Practice and other licensing boards, DCYF, and federal HIPAA / 42 CFR Part 2. When in doubt, consult your agency’s legal counsel.