Sexual abuse by a patient may be preceded by certain grooming behaviour or boundary crossings or violations. Examples of this type of behaviour may include:
- sharing intimate details of the member’s personal life with the patient;
- probing patients for inappropriate personal information;
- giving or receiving extravagant gifts from the patient;
- becoming involved with a patient‘s personal life;
- influencing a patient to change their will or other testamentary instrument; and
- excessive complimenting and/or flirting with a patient;
It is incumbent on a member to stop this type of behaviour before it may lead to anything more serious. For more details, please see Guideline G-001: Communication with Patients.