Public statement in relation to Andreas Kirbach

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission conducted an investigation into the professional conduct of Andreas Kirbach, a 51 year old social worker working in community mental health in Northern NSW. The investigation concerned his conduct towards Client A, a young woman to whom he provided counselling services from just after her 17th birthday in February 2011, to the end of her final year of school in November 2012. Client A was a particularly vulnerable young woman with a complex mental health history. 

The investigation found that Mr Kirbach failed to maintain appropriate therapeutic boundaries with Client A and failed to appropriately manage her growing attachment to and dependence on him. The investigation found that Mr Kirbach commenced a sexual relationship with Client A while he was her mental health case manager and that the sexual relationship continued until late June 2014. The improper close personal and sexual relationship was marked by emotional manipulation, control and escalating verbal abuse and threats on the part of Mr Kirbach. As a result, Mr Kirbach was issued with an apprehended domestic violence order on 22 May 2014. On 20 February 2015, the Lismore Local Court found Mr Kirbach guilty of assaulting and stalking/intimidating Client A in addition to breaching that AVO on a number of occasions. Following an appeal to the District Court of NSW in relation to the severity of sentence, on 29 April 2015, Mr Kirbach was sentenced to an 8 month suspended sentence.

The investigation found that Mr Kirbach breached the Code of Conduct for Unregistered Health Practitioners when he:

• failed to provide health services in a safe and ethical manner in that:

(i) he failed to deal appropriately with behaviour that he recognised constituted transference;

(ii) he encouraged Client A’s dependence on and attachment to him in circumstances where this suited his own interests rather than being for Client A’s therapeutic benefit;
(iii) he failed to maintain appropriate therapeutic boundaries in that he disclosed traumas in his own upbringing meant that the and Client A shared similarities and a deep connection;
(iv) he maintained Client A’s dependence on him when she was an inpatient by visiting regularly despite recognising the need to widen her treatment team; 
(v) he failed to appropriately manage Client A’s self-harming behaviours and engaged in this behaviour with her, to satisfy his own interests rather than her therapeutic needs; 
(vi) he exploited Client A’s emotional immaturity, vulnerability and desire for a father figure by allowing himself as her therapist to become the most significant male figure in her life.

• engaged in a close personal and sexual relationship with Client A, which commenced while she was his client (Clause 13(1)).

The Commission is satisfied that Andreas Kirbach poses a risk to the health or safety of members of the public. 

Prohibition order

As a consequence of the findings that Mr Kirbach has breached the Code of Conduct and poses a risk to the health or safety of members of the public, the Commission makes the following prohibition order pursuant to section 41A(2)(a) of the Health Care Complaints Act 1993:

Andreas Kirbach is prohibited from providing any health services in either a paid or voluntary capacity for a period of five years from the date of this order (22 June 2015).

The Commission has decided not to make the Statement of Decision publicly available due to the extensive health information it contains about Client A and out of consideration for the wellbeing and privacy of Mr Kirbach’s partner and children.

Further information

Access the Commission's media release here.

For further information, contact the Health Care Complaints Commission on 9219 7444 or send an email to media@hccc.nsw.gov.au.

The information is correct at the time of publication. Orders may change; for example, conditions may no longer apply. For current information contact the Commission.