Trying to Research Aunt Ida's Mental Health May Prove Tricky

Breta Meria Conole was in a state psychiatric hospital for more than two decades, though the reason why is a family mystery. Debby Hannigan, her great-grandniece, tried for years to access Conole's medical records via New York state, thinking they might hold clues to mental health issues in her family, including her oldest daughter's depression. Hannigan was turned away, and her experience is hardly unique. Frustrated relatives have been pushing for law changes in states to allow the release of mental health records of long-dead ancestors, per the AP. Their efforts have resulted in access policy changes in some states, but elsewhere, reforms are happening slowly or not at all. More:

• History: In the 1800s, the US saw a boom in state institutions for the confinement of people with mental illness. They were called lunatic or insane asylums, with the reasons for admission ranging from "brain fever" and "grief and anxiety" to "laziness," "religious excitement," and "desertion by husband," per historical records. Some asylums gained reputations as brutal, overcrowded warehouses where patients were neglected and restrained. Asylums gradually became psychiatric hospitals, but practices didn't necessarily improve: In the 1900s, they were the settings of since-discredited treatments like lobotomies and induced comas.
• Records: At some facilities, documents were likely damaged, destroyed, or lost over the years. Surviving documents may not be well organized or cataloged, but a lot of info still exists, says Dr. Laurence Guttmacher, a former clinical director of one of New York's state hospitals, the Rochester Psychiatric Center.

• Tapping into the past: Such records have drawn the interest of some people whose families are struggling with depression, suicide, or other issues. "About twice a month I would get a request from a family member to get access to records, to try to learn the story of their families," Guttmacher says. State officials told him at the time that he couldn't release that kind of information.
• Patient privacy: Protections for patients can last decades. A federal law enacted in 1996 protects the privacy of each patient's health info, including diagnosed conditions and what care they received. The law, known as HIPAA, protects health information for 50 years after someone dies. Some states, like Ohio and Maine, offer similar access after a certain amount of time has passed, but other states are more restrictive. New York, for example, allows such records to stay sealed "in perpetuity," per a statement from New York's Office of Mental Health. Records can be released to patients and their immediate family members, but generally not to more distant descendants.
• Finding records: Families do have other routes to access ancestors' history, per historians. Online services such as Ancestry.com provide, for a price, access to old records, including census data that can reveal if someone was in a state institution at the time. Veterans' military pension files may also contain details on a person's mental health. Meanwhile, old newspapers were packed with items about residents, including when people were sent to state institutions.