Q. I’m working on my genealogy and would like to locate records on my relative who was a patient at an IL state mental hospital.

Patient records from IL State Mental Hospitals are held in one of three places:  the Illinois State Archives (ISA)  in Springfield, the hospitals, and more recent records by the Illinois Department of Human Services    

The IL State Archives advises that case files were not required to be retained until the early 1980s, so there are most likely losses within the records.  Case files from the 1800s at ISA consist of large registers with a few lines of description, not voluminous file folders full of material. 

Accessing this information can be challenging because in Illinois, regardless of time period, any record from a mental health and developmental center that mentions a patient’s name is closed. The patient or his or her guardian must sign a release of information.  After death, the release comes through the executor of the patient’s estate or through a court order issued in an Illinois circuit court. The good news is that there are many open records at ISA that will give you a context about the institution to which your ancestor was committed. Examples are photos, floor plans, statistics, funding levels, descriptions of therapeutic programs, and reports on living conditions. 

A good overview and resource is An Illustrated History of Illinois Public Mental Health Services 1847 – 2000 by Joseph Mehr.  It discusses each hospital and is available at the Newberry Library and other public libraries. 

Recent correspondence with the Division of Mental Health in the Illinois Department of Human Services reiterated that a court order is the only way to obtain patient records.

• The order must come from an Illinois circuit court in the county where the hospital was located.
• The judge must be familiar with mental health law (ask at the Clerk of Circuit Court office which judges handle those types of cases).
• The most effective argument is that access is needed for family health history.
• A copy of the court order is directed to the Chief Health Information Management Administrator, Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health. That is currently Ms. Traci Davis, RHIA.  401 S. Clinton, 2^nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60607, 312-814-4771, Tracy.Davis@illinois.gov.
• The administrator reviews the order and sends it to the proper storage facility; ISA is also checked.  All available records will be provided but there is no guarantee they are extant for some hospitals. You may wish to include language in the petition about the order including all records wherever they may be held.
• Illinois Public Act 097-0623 can no longer be used to obtain patient records.  It was amended with language stating “In the event of a conflict between the application of this Section and the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act to a specific situation, the provisions of the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act shall control.”
• Because Illinois has its own law about mental health records, the rules designated in 2013 under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) do not apply.  Those rules states that patient records are open 50 years after the patient’s death. They only apply to states that do not have their own state laws about patient records.

Your options are to hire an attorney licensed in Illinois to help you, or try to do it yourself (ask the Clerk of the Circuit Court about pro se procedures).  

If you have questions related to resources and or suggestions related to accessing state hospital records, you can contact the Newberry Library's reference department at reference@newberry.org