Lindsay Lohan brings enough problems on herself. She doesn’t need unethical professionals to make her life even more chaotic by violating her privacy rights.
Lohan is now embroiled in a controversy over an alleged assault on an employee of the Betty Ford Center when the actress was a patient there. The employee, Dawn Holland, couldn’t resist the allure of bright lights and cable TV sleaze fame, so she gave an interview to TMZ in which she revealed various unsavory conduct by Lindsay before and during the encounter, all of which was supposed to be strictly protected by the Center as patient confidences.
In denying Lohan’s claim that Holland’s physical assault on her initiated their tussle, Holland told TMZ, “I did not touch the woman. I am not willing to risk my job over any patient”…unless, of course, that patient is Lindsay Lohan, and Ms. Holland can get fifteen minutes of fame by breaking privacy laws and blabbing embarrassing confidential information about her to the press. Holland was fired as soon as the interview aired, with the Center saying in a statement, “Regrettably, one of our employees violated strict confidentiality guidelines and laws by publicly identifying patients in a media interview and by disclosing a privileged document.”
This is too late to help Lohan, however, who is betrayed by those she trusts as often as she betrays herself. The celebrities who pay big bucks to the Betty Ford Center to fight their drug and alcohol addictions frequently engage in inappropriate and potentially embarrassing conduct there—that’s why they are in an addiction treatment center. For a staff member of a clinic in this field to dish to TMZ about a patient’s behavior reflects horribly on the integrity of the Center, as well as its training and oversight of employees. Lohan was the unequivocal victim here: she is addicted and ill, and behaved the way addicted and ill people often behave. She trusted a world-renowned rehabilitation center to treat her problems, and instead it has made them worse.
Lindsay Lohan cannot catch a break.
Ethics Alarms 
Now, they’re saying she might go back to jail for this.
She really can’t catch a break.
On the other hand, Miss Holland may just have considered Lohan as the straw that broke the camel’s back. It must be tough enough having to work with arrogant, brain-bent characters out of Hollywood on a full time basis. Miss Lohan, however, may have been a challenge on a whole new level. I don’t need to repeat her litany of questionable public behavior here. But if she demonstrated her usual temperment at BFC AND assaulted this woman for good measure, I find it hard to blame Miss Holland too harshly. She was wrong, of course. No argument there. But everyone has their limit. And, I think, the clinic staff has an obligation to protect its members against known unruly inmates.
It’s kind of like saying, though, that prison guards can be excused for mistreating the inmates. If Holland can’t handle substance-abusing ego cases without violating HIPPA, I think it’s fair to say that she’s in the wrong line of work, no?