| 6:52:59 PM - Sun, Jun 17th 2012 |
|
I wanted to share my experience getting asylum records for anyone else who would be interested in knowing what the process is and how to go about doing it.
My great grandfather was institutionalized most of her life, and as I am myself a mental health professional it has always been a wonder to me.. what were the circumstances of her admission? What was her diagnosis, what did she look like?
My family and I started by contacting the hospital, which is still in limited operation and was told that due to HIPPA laws they couldn't tell us anything unless we were the legal owners of her estate.
In order to take over her estate, we had to send notice to relatives saying what we were doing. And a couple of these relatives accused us of knowing about some sort of secret financial inheritance and challenged us, and refused to sign off on it. Eventually though, we got control of her estate. This document cost around $150.
With that we could finally get the hospital records. The records clerk acted very strange... sort of hinted that we wanted the records so that we could sue the hospital, and then stated that there might not be much in the way of records.
Well, we waited with anticipation to get the records and all it was, was a single piece of paper. Just had her name, birth date, and nothing else really. No diagnosis, no admit reason, no nothing. It was very disappointing.
|
