This story discusses child sexual abuse. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 800-656-4673 to reach the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. You can also visit the Child Help Hotline for additional support.
“The Pitt” — HBO’s new hit series that follows the staff of a hospital emergency room over one 15-hour shift — has made waves for being one of TV’s most accurate medical dramas.
HBO describes the show as “a realistic examination of the challenges facing health care workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh.”
Noah Wyle, the show’s lead, who previously starred on “ER,” told Variety in January that Dr. Joe Sachs, who was a technical advisor on “ER,” helped with “The Pitt” to ensure the writing was accurate.
“He puts everything into making sure that the realism is on the page, on the stage, and making sure that the community that he comes from is being honored and the stories that they want told are being depicted,” Wyle said.
And viewers are loving it. Doctors even told The New York Times that they feel “seen” by the series.
But one plot line in particular has prompted feedback from a particular group of health professionals: social workers.
Episode 7 addresses what’s known as the mandatory reporting process, after the wife of a patient shares with a doctor that she suspects her husband is abusing their daughter.
In most states, including Pennsylvania, people in certain professions — such as health care workers — are required by law to report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect, according the National Association of Mandated Reporters. How to report the suspected abuse depends on the state, but it’s often by phone or online.
In the episode, Susan Dunn (Jessica Morris) arrives to the hospital with her adolescent daughter, Alana (Ivy George), as her husband, Silas (Tyler Poelle), is taken into surgery. After medical tests reveal he has high levels of the hormone progesterone, Susan admits to giving it to him.
“I put it in his coffee every morning. I thought if I could kill his libido, he’d stop. … I think he’s molesting our daughter,” Susan tells Dr. Trinity Santos, played by Isa Briones.
Santos reports this claim to Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, played by Wyle, including some additional details from Susan about what exactly she believes Silas is doing to their daughter. Susan also says Alana’s behavior has changed and she’s struggling in school.
“It’s grooming, and we are mandated reporters of child abuse in Pennsylvania,” Santos says.
The hospital’s social worker, Kiara, played by Krystel McNeil, disagrees, though. “There’s nothing to report unless we have proof,” Kiara says. “Right now, it’s all speculative.”
“We can’t do anything unless the daughter comes forward,” Kiara adds. “We can try to talk to her.”
But this is a less-than-accurate portrayal of how the mandatory reporting process usually works.
A TikTok by social worker Rachel LaPointe explains what would have happened in real life.
“In the vast majority of states, it’s only the suspicion of child abuse that kickstarts your mandate to report,” LaPointe explains. “A parent saying they believe this is going on inside of their home is absolutely enough suspicion to qualify.”
Bambi Fisher, director of Women and Children’s Health in the Department of Social Work Services at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, agrees. She tells TODAY.com that this portrayal is “absolutely incorrect” if the daughter is a minor. (The show doesn’t state how old she is, but the actor who plays her is currently 17.)
“I think any social worker who’s been trained by child protection protocols would disagree” with “The Pitt’s” portrayal, Fisher says. “The mandate is suspicion of abuse and neglect, and we 100% are not investigators.”
Instead, Fisher says that a hospital social worker’s responsibility is to file a report to Child Protection Services if there is any abuse suspicion. CPS then has the option of “accepting or not accepting a report.” If accepted — which Fisher believes this case would be — it would then be investigated by CPS, not the mandatory reporter.
“If a parent came to us and said exactly what (the mom) said … those are all big red flags,” Fisher adds.
The mandated reporting process depends on the state but usually involves calling the mandated reporter number, explaining the circumstances and then sharing where the child lives, their age and if there are any other siblings in the home.
“It’s a very scripted form,” Fisher explains.
In the episode, instead of reporting the abuse suspicions, Robinavitch and Kiara recommend Susan speak with someone about her feelings and talk to Alana, and they offer to connect her with law enforcement.
“Hopefully now that it’s out in the open, she’ll take the necessary steps to handle this the right way,” Robinavitch tells Santos.
While Fisher says the recommendation to have the mom speak to someone is “very helpful,” she reiterates that with kids under 18, the protocol isn’t allowing the family to decide whether to contact law enforcement. It’s reporting the suspected abuse to CPS.
“The Pitt” wraps up this arc with Santos confronting Silas while he’s still in his hospital bed. She delivers a monologue where she calls him “child molester” and threatens to involve the police and kill him if he doesn’t stop touching his daughter.
It’s a powerful scene, but this moment in particular concerned LaPointe.
“If you are ever in a comparable situation, do not do that,” she says in the TikTok. “That is actually an incredibly dangerous thing to do, as that man was about to go home with his wife and daughter without any real discussion of safety plans or what happens next. ‘The Pitt’ created a scenario where this daughter is actually in far more danger when she goes home because of the actions of the doctors.”
“Maybe that’s the point, but they never acknowledged it as wrong, and they never brought it back up again,” LaPoint continues. “At the end of the day, that’s never how people who are trained in trauma-informed care would’ve handled that.”
Fisher adds that if the mandated reporting had been done correctly, Alana “wouldn’t necessarily be allowed to go home without Child Protection saying the child’s safe to go home.”
Despite its mischaracterization of mandatory reporting in Episode 7, both Fisher and LaPointe are still big fans of “The Pitt.”
LaPointe even starts her TikTok saying how she’s “obsessed” with the show and that the only reason she’s posting the feedback is that Wyle has said he wants the show to be as accurate as possible.
Fisher agrees. “Even if there were issues with Episode 7 … the portrayal of the social worker as critical to the whole team was very positive,” she says.
