On-site customers who appear ill or who say they are depressed

System

What is an employer's obligation towards a visitor to your place of employment, which happens to be a public building, filled with members, donors and volunteers?

Thank you.

Don D

Based only on what you provided, I think the obligation would be to greet the visitor and ask them if you can be of assistance to them.

Pork

Eve: Welcome to the forum; Approach them with kindness and a willingness to help! Of course, you are reading from two very find Mississippi gentlemen and our 1st step is always warn and friendly. I think if you could shed a little more light on this "puppy" we might be able to give you some good HR advise rather than Southern Gentlemen thoughts.

Happy New Year and ya'll be careful up there where the world is a "buzz with security and danger". My self, I am going to slay the deer this evening, and leave the terrorist to your greater population concerns. I will be ready, if they come my way and I want hesitate to defend my territory, but I sure would hate to waste a good bullet on the likes of this crazy world of ours!.

PORK

Don D

Eve: Can you provide more information with your question? What kind of employer/facility is yours and what kinds of concerns about depressed visitors do you have? Are you concerned that you might have an obligation to make referrals of ill people? I'm afraid I just don't understand your question. Thanks.

System

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I want to know what our organization's obligations are. Since we are a non-profit, we always have volunteers and donors in the building.

Don D

The question is still unclear. The owner of the building is liable for injuries that visitors may incur, just as you would be on your home property if I broke my leg while visiting you. I don't think any of us has an absolute obligation to assist or come to the aid of an ill person on our property, although you probably need 'first responder' or 'first aid' trained staff at your facility. As far as people 'who say they are depressed', please provide more information. Probably 20% of the people who walk into our buildings are depressed, including the employees. You will want to check with the organization's attorney about general liability insurance and your obligations in that regard.

marc

We are also a non-profit and deal regularly with clients who are in various types of crisis. One of our programs is a no-cost family counseling service with licensed Marriage and Family Therapists providing the counseling. In addition, we are mandated reporters with respect to child abuse type issues. I list all of the above to provide some perspective on the comments that follow:

Diagnosing mental illness is something to leave to licensed and educated persons that can have a defendable basis for their diagnosis. You can (as do we) provide all sorts of resource and referrals for those individuals, but your duty to report them to some public authority is extremely limited. If you are witnessing violent behavior or hear threats of same, then you have some obligations, but they are the same ones you have as a citizen.

What do you do when someone with obvious signs of the flu walk in your building? You probably don't call an ambulance and whisk them off to the ER - that would only happen if they were bleeding as they walked in the door, or passed out in front of your receptionist - but not because you casually observed that they have sypmtoms of some sort of illness.

Like Don observed, I would need more information to get more specific with comments.

System

Thanks for your reply.

I understand that it is an employer's obligation not to let an employee leave the premises, driving for example, if we had reason to know that they were somehow impaired.

Similarly, if we have a situation with a donor/customer/member, who at the extreme scenario, expresses suicidal thoughts, what are our obligations?

mwild31

Man! I hate these types of questions because they always walk a fine line between a person's personal privacy & the fear others have that if they do nothing, they'll come to regret it later (i.e. someone gets hurt or the person in question gets hurt). You're going to hear a lot about this one from mainly two sides, those that feel personal privacy is hugely important (my position usually) & the others that feel they can't do nothing when faced with the situation you describe. Rather than looking for opinions on the forum one way or another, you are better off seeking your own guidance on this issue. Also, if you are worried about liability issues - you should contact your own attorney &/or your organization's department that deals with company insurance issues. Because I'm assuming that this question is either after the fact (meaning the customer has left) or simply a 'what if scenario', I would sit down with a group of the managers/leadership & draft up your plan of action based on legal/insurance input & then train your folks accordingly. It's just my advice & opinion - take it or leave it.

Hatchetman

The employment relationship is different that the relationship with a customer or visitor or a member of the public who comes into the building that an employer may own.

I strongly suggest that legal counsel be sought on the issue to get a defnitive explanation for your state, of what liability, the owner of a building may have for individuals who visit it (in a non-employment relationship).

Don D

Eve: I am convinced there is an echo in here. I know I've asked two or three times for more specific information and I saw Marc mention the same. If you really want more precise recommendations and feedback, it will be helpful to us all if you just tell us what you're talking about. Who donates what? What is a donor in your circumstance? Who are your customers and your members? Members of what? Are you talking about members of a credit union or people who stagger in and donate blood? There's some difference, I suspect,in what I might recommend if, on one hand the credit union member is coming in to donate to the angel/tree and says, "Man, Christmas is depressing" and the wino blood-donor who drags in and collapses and tells you he's been thinking of killing himself. In the earlier instance you would have no obligation. In the latter, you most assuredly would. You can get some really good answers on the Forum. But, you will see that vague questions yield vague answers. x:-)