Introduction
This guide describes what you can find in the department’s central correspondence and patient filing systems, and other administrative records relating to mental health and disability service provision.
The aim is to help readers distinguish between the two categories, the central client/patient records and records created by institutions.
It includes examples of central department records, as well as records from the actual mental health and disability institutions, including day and outpatient clinics, and intellectual disability workshops.
Historical background
Legislation
In 1843, the New South Wales Colony of Port Phillip passed the first Act (7 Vic No. 14) to deal with people with mental illness or a disability, "to make provision for the safe custody and prevention of offences". According to the Act, which also governed Victoria, “Persons certified could be committed by warrant to a gaol, house of correction or public hospital until discharged … or removed to a colonial lunatic asylum.”
Later legislation redefined the terminology for custodial institutions and the different categories of people admitted to them. Subsequent changes to institutions’ functions and names were also often instigated by new legislation, findings of Royal Commissions, or major departmental reviews.
Government administration changes
Until well into the 20th century, the same Victorian government department oversaw service provision for both mental health patients and people with disabilities. In the 19th and early 20th century, medical conditions such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy were both considered forms of mental illness: both children and adults with either condition were admitted to mental health institutions.
In 1937, the Department of Mental Hygiene established two branches: the Mental Defectives Branch, responsible for the care of adults and children with intellectual and some physical disabilities; and the Mental Hygiene Branch responsible for the care of patients with mental illness.
Until the 1980s, the same government department administered all these services. Hence many of the central systems of documentation include both people with mental illness and people with disabilities. In 1985, the Office of Intellectual Disability Services was established and the responsibility of providing services for people with intellectual disabilities was transferred from the Health Commission to Community Services Victoria.
This website also has guides for some of the private organisations that were government accredited and funded, and provided services and residential care for adults and children with physical disabilities, such as the Victorian College for the Deaf.
Comparison between central department and institutional records
Central department records
This guide is divided into two categories:1.patient records representing children, youths and adults case managed by the department:
- in residential facilities
- attending day and outpatient clinics
- attending disability day programs and facilities
2.Administrative records comprising:
- operational records which represent the department’s specific functions at the time (these have changed over the past 150 years)
- governance records from executive level management
- common administrative activities to all government department’s like personnel
The central department records for mental health patients or disability clients provide only summary information on the person’s initial assessment, admission and movement throughout the government residential facilities and day programs. The patient records include central indexes and filing systems, annual examinations and monthly reports, seclusion and restraint registers, all held within the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and its predecessor agencies dating back to the Hospitals for the Insane Branch in 1860s. This guide also includes the patient determinations of the Mental Health Review Board up to 2014.
The department’s administrative records represent its head office’s central correspondence and business unit’s filing systems, some executive manager’s records, and registers that recorded information about departmental staff, statistics and the institutions at the time. There is also the profession-specific collection, Master Set of Examination Papers for Nurses and Attendants, 1936–1950, which is atypical to the rest of the collections represented in this guide.
Examples of central department records:
- Master Inpatient Index Cards (also known as Statistical Record Cards), Chief Psychiatrist, 1865–83. This index includes people with intellectual and physical disabilities.
- Office of Psychiatric Services Administration & Statistics, 1932–85
- Register of General Correspondence Files (Mental Health), c.1970–83
Institutional records
The guides relating to specific institutions only include patient records that officially document each person’s day-to-day experiences within that facility. They capture the person’s case history, their diagnosis and medical treatment, discharge from the facility, or death from ill health or old age.The department holds the following categories of institutional records for mental health patients:
- inpatients requiring short-term and long-term treatment
- outpatients who have follow-up treatment after being an inpatient
- day clinic patients.
The department also holds the following categories of institutional records for disability clients:
- short and long term placements in institutions and community residential units
- people who attend day facilities.
Long-term residents of psychiatric and disability institutions could also have been made wards of the state (see guide Central department wardship and out-of-home care records).
Researchers should consult each institution’s specific guide for information on management of patients or the institution itself.
Examples of institutional records:
- Janefield Colony Discharge Register, 1937–62
- Pleasant Creek Special School Admission Warrants, 1937–55
Warning about distressing information
This guide contains information that some people may find distressing. If you experienced abuse as a child or young person in an institution mentioned in this guide, it may be a difficult reading experience. Guides may also contain references to previous views, policies and practices that are regrettable and do not reflect the current views, policies or practices of the department or the State of Victoria. If you find this content distressing, please consult with a support person either from the Department of Health and Human Services or another agency.
Disclaimer
Please note that the content of this administrative history is provided for general information only and does not purport to be comprehensive. The department does not guarantee the accuracy of this administrative history. For more information on the history of child welfare in Australia, see Find & .
Source
- Department of Health and Human Services Records Management Unit accession registers and agency history files
- Public Record Office Victoria website
Collection guide for the central department records on mental health and disability
Reviewed 10 October 2016