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Product liability

EDITOR: Your July issue has an article on the product liability problem, written by Phillip M. Rowell of the House Democratic staff. The author is grossly in error in describing the legislation that I.M.A. [Illinois Manufacturers' Association] has sought for the past two years to help correct this problem. The I.M.A. bill, which was introduced early in 1977, and was backed by all of the business associations in the state, was a comprehensive bill including a number of needed changes in the substantive laws of strict liability used in Illinois courts (H.B. 1333 and S.B. 475). It certainly did not include any change in the workmen's compensation law that would, in effect, make workmen's compensation the exclusive remedy for most workplace injuries, as erroneously stated by the author.

The I.M.A. did not "team up" with the Alliance of American Insurers, as alleged in the article. That group was one of about 20 that supported our bill, including the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce. In 1977, the Chamber helped the National Product Liability Council introduce a model state bill on which they had worked for two years.

The article also alleged that the I.M.A. is happy with the compromise legislation that was finally enacted. It is one thing to compromise in order to get something enacted — it is quite another to be happy with the compromise. We are certainly not satisfied and will be back next year seeking a much needed comprehensive tort reform bill. We doubt that the State Chamber is any happier than we are, and we are confident that the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, on the other side, is not particularly happy either.

Orville V. Bergren, president
Illinois Manufacturers' Association

Author Rowell regrets that he identified the IMA and the Alliance of American Insurers (AAI) as the sole backers of IMA's proposals for product liability reform. IMA's proposals had, in fact, the backing of many groups. Changes in the worker's compensation law were suggested by AAI but were not included by IMA in its proposed product liability legislation. — The editors.

O'Neal or Durbin

EDITOR: This article focused on style of government and left one with false impressions about the continued development of senior services performed by the lieutenant governors of this state. In particular, it did not mention important services that Lt. Gov. O'Neal is performing for seniors. He is continuing the Senior Action Office and Hot Line created by his predecessor, Lt. Gov. Hartigan, thus establishing the Hot Line, as a nonpartisan commitment.

Lt. Gov. O'Neal has called together senior citizens from throughout the state to create a Senior Citizens Legislative Forum. Initially, he used discretionary funds from his office to pay for overnight accommodations for those seniors traveling long distances to Springfield. These funds were made available on a nonpartisan basis. Lt. Gov. O'Neal is attempting to establish this forum on a regional basis to increase senior participation.

In the matter of advocacy, O'Neal promised forum members that he would help them present legislation and would be a private advocate for their views with the governor. He was tested immediately. The initial meeting of the Senior Legislative Forum occurred when the generic drug bill was on the governor's desk. The seniors attending the meeting unanimously supported the bill. By standing by his promise when these seniors took such a stand, the Lt. Gov. accepted the political risk of being considered ineffectual if that bill had been vetoed.

Lt. Gov. O'Neal has stated that the purpose of the Senior Citizens Legislative Forum would be to bring together the diverse views of a variety of senior groups on important issues. The potential benefits of a lieutenant governor who coordinates interagency services to seniors, soliciting the opinions of seniors cannot be overlooked. The best possible "program" that could be developed for seniors in this state is the one being developed by Lt. Gov. O'Neal: the "program" of listening to them.

Dennis Haffron, Executive Director
Winnebago County Council on Aging

Broadcasters and courtrooms

EDITOR: I appreciated Tom Littlewood's insightful column [August] regarding the Illinois News Broadcasters Association petition to open Illinois courtrooms, on at least a limited basis, to cameras and tape recorders. I must admit to being open to a charge of bias on this particular issue, yet I cannot understand the court's purpose in a summary dismissal of the petition. The INBA prepared its petition in an effort to open up the courtrooms of Illinois to the people of Illinois through the objective lenses and microphones of television and radio stations.

Concerned citizens in Illinois (including broadcast journalists) are carefully watching the progress being made in an ever-growing number of states which have opened the doors of their courtrooms to their citizens by allowing media access. I am confident the issue will be brought before the Illinois high court again; I only hope the justices will reconsider their position and decide the idea of opening a courtroom to the scrutiny of the citizens it is funded by, and serves, is a worthy one.

Raymond E. Schroeder
Assistant professor of communication,
Sangamon State University
Recorder, Illinois News Broadcasters Association

Mental health revisions

EDITOR: Thank you for publishing two timely articles on mental health issues in your July issue. Robert Sipe and Luther Landon are right in characterizing recent efforts to revise the Illinois Mental Health Code as "artful." Single minded freedom-at-any-price advocates, blinded by their zeal for a noble cause, have chosen to disregard clinical reality and the equally important duty of society to protect those who can't protect themselves.

Many people with severe symptoms of mental illness cannot be described as "dangerous" for purposes of involuntary treatment. In many cases, short-term involuntary treatment can produce significant amelioration of these symptoms. Unfortunately, two cardinal symptoms stand in the way: denial of illness and refusal of treatment. The resulting delays and neglect often lead to more profound and chronic conditions with many

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irreversible personal and social consequences. In states where simplistic legal notions have taken the place of clinical realities, the solution has been to put more mentally ill people in jail, a remedy we wisely abandoned over one hundred years ago.

The Sipe-Landon article in your July issue made several references to Cuckoo's Nest conditions which presumably would be corrected by the new code proposals. The authors clearly assume that Cuckoo's Nest is an accurate dramatization of typical mental illness and how we cope with it institutionally. But these conditions were not true twenty years ago when the author worked briefly as an orderly in a California hospital, and I can tell you categorically that they have not been true in Illinois for at least twenty years.

Making it more difficult for people to enter hospitals, receive treatment and relate to staff will not cure the real problem of our current mental health system. Inadequate understanding and poor support of state facilities and services cannot be abolished by simple transfer of care to the community. The companion piece on "Community Mental Health Services" by Taber and Anderson touches on this, but does so in a way which may be misunderstood. The same dollars cannot be used to make a simultaneous and uneventful transition from state services to community services. There is no evidence that money lost to the state system is ever fully reallocated to the community system. Other political priorities always seem to prevail. Closing Peoria State Hospital, for example, did not help any other facility or program in the area.

Code language does not make clear distinctions between state and community facilities. Yet less than one-third of all mental patients are admitted to state hospitals today. The vast majority are cared for in short-term general hospital psychiatric units. These are small, efficient and effective. Most patients enter the programs voluntarily. However, those who might profit from involuntary care in these facilities will find it increasingly difficult to get in under the new Code. Consequently, more patients ironically will end up in state hospitals for longer stays. It is difficult to see how this can be interpreted by any reasonable person as a significant advance in mental health care. No doubt the predictable failures will be blamed on the mental health system by the same misguided legal advocates who have created this problem in the first place.

Thomas T. Tourlentes, M.D.
Director of Psychiatric Services,
Comprehensive Community Mental Health
Center of Rock Island and Mercer Counties

32/September 1978/Illinois Issues


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