New York State Rome Developmental Disabilities Services Office Patient Case Files

B2553-19: Uncertain.

B2553-19A: Numerical.

"An act to establish an institution for the care and custody of unteachable idiots" was passed and approved by the governor in 1893. Further legislation established the Rome State Custodial Asylum in 1894. In 1926, jurisdiction, supervision, and control of schools for mental defectives was given to the Department of Mental Hygiene. In 1973, it was renamed Rome Developmental Center.

Case files contain documentation of court commitment or voluntary admission; patient mental health history at time of admission; subsequent progress or regress; medical treatment; transfers to and from residential units; disciplinary measures; family contacts; and discharge by release, transfer, or death. Later files contain information on treatment plans and Medicaid/Medicare benefits.

Early records typically include request for admission submitted by county superintendent of the poor giving detailed personal and family history; patient history on admission and brief monthly remarks on patient behavior, activities, and disciplinary incidents; medical certificate of idiocy containing statements by two examining physicians; parents affidavit of indigence and request for commitment; psychological report; hospital charts; family correspondence; and death or discharge record.

Later records may include court commitment papers including petition, brief patient history, results of physical and mental examination, affidavit of service on parents, and judge's order of commitment; application for non-objecting or involuntary admission; case summary; clinical summary; notes on changes in legal status, next-of-kin; statistical data summarizing personal and diagnostic data; and quarterly or annual reviews of legal status, personal habits, achievements and problems.

B2553-19A: This accretion consists of microfilm copies of client records and may duplicate information in other accretions. Number of records included and completeness is uncertain. Records are numbered from "Chart One" through at least 17,000. Earliest records contain minimal information, usually only certificate of lunacy or mental defect and orders of commitment. Later records include significantly more documentation, including medical and social work evaluations, and reports.

B2710Series B2710, Partial Index to Rome Developmental Center Patient Case Files, partially indexes this series.

B2553-19: Folder list is available at the repository.

B2553-19A: Container list is available at the repository.

B2553-19, B2553-19A: These accretions were transferred under RDA 21723.

Restricted in accordance with Mental Hygiene Law, Section 33.13, relating to confidentiality of clinical records. Access is permitted under certain conditions upon approval by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.