NEW YORK — In 2026, New York state Sen. Pat Fahy introduced a bill that would designate psychiatric records of patients deceased for 50 years or longer as historic records, no longer subject to privacy protections. The proposal seeks to override New York’s current policy of sealing psychiatric records “in perpetuity,” as stated by the New York Office of Mental Health.

Under federal HIPAA law, health information remains protected for 50 years after a patient’s death. New York, however, imposes stricter limits, generally releasing psychiatric records only to patients and immediate family members, not to more distant descendants. Some states, including Ohio, Maine, and Massachusetts, have already enacted laws allowing access to mental health records after a set period following a patient’s death. Massachusetts revised its policy last year after a commission report detailed decades of abuse and neglect at state institutions.

Families have long sought access to these records for personal and medical reasons. Debby Hannigan, the great grandniece of Breta Meria Conole—who spent over two decades in a state psychiatric hospital—submitted two formal requests to obtain Conole’s medical files, including a note from her daughter’s therapist stating the records would help the family “to know their family medical history better.” Both requests were denied.

“If the person is deceased, there should be an availability of these records to help give the family closure. Learning from our history is one of the best ways to give us insight into how we do better in the future,” Fahy said. She cited the Willowbrook State School on Staten Island, known for its deplorable conditions for developmentally disabled children, as evidence of New York’s troubled institutional past.

Dr. Laurence Guttmacher, former clinical director of Rochester Psychiatric Center, said he received about two requests per month from family members seeking records but was barred by state officials from releasing them. “We had this incredibly rich trove of records” at the Rochester facility, he said, though he noted that many documents may be disorganized or damaged. Guttmacher added that a lot of information from psychiatric hospital records still exists and could be valuable to descendants.