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Mental Health Intervention in Louisiana
Mental health intervention in Louisiana, through the PEC, the coroner and the court.
Louisiana’s emergency certificate can hold someone up to 15 days, and the parish coroner must confirm it within 72 hours. Families can also ask a coroner or judge for an order for custody. Here is how each piece works, and how a voluntary plan fits around them.
Louisiana gives the parish coroner a role most states never imagined. A doctor’s emergency certificate starts a hold, but your loved one stays only if the coroner, examining independently within 72 hours, agrees.
Louisiana also treats substance-related and addictive disorders within the same civil commitment law. G3 helps families understand those routes, prepares a calm, voluntary conversation, and finds care with no program paying us for the referral.
For an emergency tonight
Call 911 for a weapon, violence, an overdose or a suicide attempt. For a crisis below that line, call or text 988; the Louisiana Department of Health says calls are answered by two certified Louisiana centers, and chat is at Louisiana988.org.
La. R.S. 28:53
The emergency certificate, often called a PEC
Hospitals and families across Louisiana shorten it to “PEC,” for physician’s emergency certificate, though under R.S. 28:53 a physician is not the only one who can sign. The certificate may be executed by a licensed physician, a physician assistant, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, certain other nurse practitioners with a collaborating physician’s verbal approval, or a psychologist. It requires an actual examination, which can be no more than 72 hours before the signature, and the certificate itself is valid for 72 hours.
Once a person is admitted on an emergency certificate, they may be detained for observation, diagnosis and treatment for no more than 15 days. For a person with a substance-related or addictive disorder, a second certificate can extend that by one more period of up to 15 days. Peace officers may transport a person on a certificate at the request of the facility director, the certifying professional, next of kin, a curator or a responsible agency.
The coroner’s check, the CEC
Here is the Louisiana safeguard. When someone is admitted on an emergency certificate, the facility director must promptly notify the parish coroner. Within 72 hours, the coroner or a deputy must independently examine the person and execute a second emergency certificate, commonly called the CEC. That coroner’s certificate is a necessary precondition to continued confinement. If the coroner finds the person is not a proper subject for emergency admission, the director must discharge them.
For families, this means the first certificate is not the last word. Your account of what you have seen, given clearly and calmly to the treatment team, can matter at both examinations. After admission, R.S. 28:53.1 also requires the facility to complete a behavioral health evaluation within 72 hours and to plan discharge, including notifying the patient’s providers.
When no clinician can see your loved one
The order for custody, the route families can start
Under R.S. 28:53.2, a peace officer or any other credible person may give a sworn statement to the parish coroner or a judge that a person has a mental illness or a substance-related or addictive disorder, needs immediate treatment to protect themselves or others from physical harm, and is dangerous to self or others or gravely disabled. The coroner or judge may then issue a written order for custody. It is effective for 72 hours from issuance. Once in custody, the person must be delivered to a treatment facility or the coroner’s office within 12 hours and examined within 12 hours of arrival, or released.
R.S. 28:53 adds a related path: when a credible adult cannot afford or immediately obtain a private physician’s examination, the coroner or a judge may arrange one. Sworn statements carry consequences, and the statute includes a criminal penalty for knowingly false ones. We help families organize what they have actually observed. We are not attorneys, and we will tell you when your situation calls for a Louisiana lawyer.
Longer care runs through the district court. Under R.S. 28:54, the Louisiana Department of Health or any person of legal age may file a petition asserting that someone, because of a mental illness or a substance-related or addictive disorder, is dangerous or gravely disabled. The court sets a hearing no later than 18 calendar days after filing, appoints a physician (preferably a psychiatrist) or medical psychologist to examine the respondent, and makes that report available to counsel at least three days before the hearing.
Under R.S. 28:56, most judicial commitments last no more than 180 days, with the issuing court reviewing them every 90 days. Commitments for alcohol use disorder run 45 days, with up to two 60-day recommitments. A patient may be conditionally discharged for up to 120 days, and may be required to attend outpatient treatment as a condition of that release.
Judicial commitment, opened to any adult
Assisted outpatient treatment in Louisiana
Louisiana also has a court-ordered outpatient law, Part III-A of Title 28. Under R.S. 28:66, a court may order outpatient treatment for an adult with a mental illness who is unlikely to be safe in the community without supervision, has a history of not following treatment, is unlikely to seek treatment voluntarily because of the illness, needs treatment to prevent a relapse or deterioration that would make them dangerous or gravely disabled, and is likely to benefit. A court setting the treatment plan must consider any psychiatric advance directive the person has.
If a person stops following an outpatient order and poses a significant risk, R.S. 28:53.2 allows a physician, psychiatric nurse practitioner, psychologist or assigned case manager to present the order and a statement of noncompliance to a coroner or judge for an order for custody. Outpatient orders work far better when the person already knows the team, which is why we often pair them with a voluntary plan. Our guide to psychiatric levels of care explains what outpatient can and cannot do.
Where a planned intervention fits
Every Louisiana route above depends on danger or grave disability. Many families are watching someone lose ground who is nowhere near that line, and for them the law offers little until things get worse. A prepared conversation does not have to wait.
Instead of a certificate. We confirm a psychiatric program at the right level of care, rehearse with the family, and Matt guides a calm conversation that offers a clear yes.
With the legal route mapped. If risk is climbing, the family prepares an intervention while understanding the order for custody, so a 2 a.m. decision is not made from scratch.
After a PEC ends in release. Many emergency stays end within days, sometimes at the coroner’s examination. With signed releases, Hannah gathers what the hospital found, and the family uses the following days to offer voluntary care. Our guides to high-acuity presentations and involuntary psychiatric pathways go deeper, and for loved ones who also drink or use, our guide to co-occurring disorders and our Louisiana interventionist page cover the substance side.
Louisiana crisis lines and licensing lookups
911 for immediate danger. 988 by call or text, any hour. The Department of Health says VIA LINK is the primary responder for the 504, 225 and 985 area codes, and the Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling for 318 and 337. Chat is at Louisiana988.org.
Spanish and other access. Text AYUDA to 988 or press 2 when calling. Veterans press 1. TTY users dial 711, then 988.
Licensed facilities. The Department of Health’s Health Standards Section licenses Louisiana health care facilities, including behavioral health service providers and psychiatric residential treatment facilities, and publishes directories of the providers it licenses or certifies.
Our standard. A license confirms legal standing, not fit. We talk with each program’s clinical leadership before recommending it to your family.
Reaching Louisiana families
G3 is based in Austin, Texas, a short flight from most of Louisiana. Planning begins by phone and video the day you call. For the intervention, Matt flies into Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY), Baton Rouge Metropolitan (BTR), Shreveport Regional (SHV) or Lafayette Regional (LFT), depending on your parish.
The right program may be in Louisiana or several states away. Our sober transport companions travel with your loved one and stay through intake, treatment navigation chooses the program with no referral fee involved, and our guide to interstate intervention logistics helps families spread along the Gulf. Our fee is flat and written down before you commit, with travel at actual cost.
Common questions
Louisiana families ask us about the PEC.
Can a family member PEC someone in Louisiana?
How long can someone be held on a PEC?
What is an order for custody?
Does Louisiana allow commitment for alcohol or drug use?
Who can file for a judicial commitment, and how long does it last?
Our son was released after the coroner’s exam. What can we do?
Keep reading
Louisiana pages and guides for what comes next
The next step is a conversation
You do not have to figure this out alone.
One confidential call with G3 begins it. No pressure, no judgment, just a path forward.