In his conferences with Louisiana lawmakers preparatory to the special session of the Legislature he plans to call, Gov. Earl K. Long has been devoting considerable attention to state mental laws.
Last month he was a patient in one of the state mental hospitals, until he was released by political maneuverings.
Mechanics of the release involved the firing of the head of the state department of institutions, firing of the superintendent of the Man-deville hospital where the governor was a patient, and new appointments to take care of both positions. Then the new hospital superintendent declared "there is nothing wrong" with Gov. Long and discharged him.
Now, a month later, the former patient is proposing special session legislative changes that would make it more difficult for a person to be committed to a mental institution.
The governor is recommending that a provision be inserted into the present law so as to require the signature of 10 neighbors on a commitment petition before a person can be placed in a state mental institution.
Dr. Lloyd W. Rowland, president of the Louisiana Association
for Mental Health, had this to say about the proposal:
"Our caution at this point is that we do not do something stupid, moving backward to an earlier time when commitment was a lay decision, when untrained persons viade the decision as to who is mentally ill!'
, And two visiting mental health specialists attending a symposium here questioned the 10-neighbors proposal.
Dr. Robert C Hunt, director of the Hudson River State hospital in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., commented:
"What business is it of the neighbors anyhow?"
Dr. Thomas J. Boag, assistant director of the Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry in Montreal, Canada, said:
"I think it would be difficult to find 10 neighbors who would want to be on r e cor d as committing somebody."
Not only is Gov. Long's proposal for changes in the mental health laws not of an emergency nature that would require special session action, but also it seems to have no endorsement other than that of the governor, a recent patient—against his will—in one of the hospitals that would be affected by the proposed legislation.
