University of Texas at Austin (Hogg Foundation for Mental Health)

The University of Texas at Austin (UT) Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, alongside the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, the Council of State Archivists, and the UT School of Information, will develop and host nationwide, historical public mental health records stakeholder convenings. Historical public mental health records are administrative records and patient records with individually identifiable health information about a person 50 years following their death. The project will gather archivists, historians, researchers, genealogists, people with lived experience in public psychiatric hospitals, and hospital administrators to discuss shared challenges, successes, critiques, and potential collaborative solutions in the management of these sensitive documents. Currently, there is no space for these complex discussions, nor are there frameworks for managing historical public mental health records that practitioners can directly reference. The project will result in a community of practice and a comprehensive publication to facilitate ongoing conversations with key stakeholders across the nation.