October 2, 1996

 

 

Mr. Temer J. Leary
Warren County Jail
Municipal Center
Lake George, NY 12845

The staff of the Committee on Open Government is authorized to issue advisory opinions. The ensuing staff advisory opinion is based solely upon the information presented in your correspondence.

Dear Mr. Leary:

I have received your letter of September 23. You have sought assistance in obtaining your records from a psychiatric center. According to your letter, although a request was made for the records, the facility did not respond.

In this regard, while the statute within the Committee's advisory jurisdiction, the Freedom of Information Law, pertains generally to government records in New York, a different provision of law, §33.16 of the Mental Hygiene Law, deals specifically with the records in question.

As I understand §33.16 of the Mental Hygiene Law, it provides rights of access to clinical mental health records, with certain exceptions, to "qualified persons," and paragraph 7 of subdivision (a) of that section defines that phrase to include "any properly identified patient or client." It appears that you are a "qualified person" and that you may assert rights of access under that statute.

Section 33.16(b) states in relevant part that a facility must respond to a request within ten days, and subdivision (d) of §33.13 pertains to the right to appeal a denial of access and states that:

"(d) Clinical records access review committees. The commissioner of mental health the commissioner of mental retardation and developmental disabilities and the commissioner of alcoholism and substance abuse services shall appoint clinical record access review committees to hear appeals of the denial of access to patient or client records as provided in paragraph four of subdivision (c) of this section. Members of such committee shall be appointed by the respective commissioners. Such clinical record access review committees shall consist of no less than three nor more than five persons. The commissioners shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary to effectuate the provisions of this subdivision."

If you do not receive a satisfactory response to your request, it is suggested you request the rules and regulations from the appropriate commissioner in order to ensure that you are following the correct procedure and that you can properly assert your rights.

I hope that I have been of assistance.

Sincerely,

 

Robert J. Freeman
Executive Director

RJF:jm

cc: Jesse Nixon, Director