Asking for your mental health records

On this plate (7 sections)

Health records are the written account of your care, and many people want to read their own, whether to check what was noted, to prepare for an appointment or to understand a past decision. The rules for asking differ by country, and they change. This plate outlines two systems: the United States, where the HIPAA Privacy Rule gives a right of access, and England, where a subject access request under data protection law is the usual route. Each rule is described as at the date of its source page and may have changed since. This is general information, not legal advice.

United States: the HIPAA right of access (as at 2025 and 2026 pages)

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights explains that the Privacy Rule gives you, with few exceptions, the right to inspect, review and receive a copy of your medical records and billing records held by health plans and health care providers covered by the rule. On its "Your Medical Records" page, content last reviewed on 30 May 2025, it says only you or your personal representative has this right.

A companion HHS page, "Get it. Check it. Use it." (content last reviewed 31 July 2026), tells people to ask their doctor. It says that in most cases you can get a copy the way you want it, such as by email, and that a doctor normally has up to 30 days to provide it, although often the information can come sooner. Both pages carry a notice that the guidance stays in effect only to the extent it is consistent with a 2020 court order in a case called Ciox Health v. Azar, and that any provision vacated by that decision is rescinded. Check the current HHS pages rather than rely on any summary.

Fees and refusals in the United States

HHS states that a provider cannot deny you a copy because you have not paid for services. A provider may charge reasonable costs for copying and mailing, and cannot charge for searching for or retrieving your records. The "Get it. Check it. Use it." page adds that the fee may not be a per page fee if your information is stored electronically.

Psychotherapy notes are treated differently. HHS says you do not have the right to access a provider's psychotherapy notes, defined on the page as notes a mental health professional takes during a conversation with a patient and keeps separate from the medical and billing records.

If you believe your rights have been violated, HHS says you can file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights. Its complaint page (content last reviewed 13 February 2026) describes filing electronically through the OCR Complaint Portal. The text retrieved did not state a filing deadline, so check the page.

England: a subject access request (as at 2025 and 2026 pages)

NHS England Digital advises that if you want to see copies of your medical records, you should ask your GP or the health setting that provided your care or treatment. The page, last edited 12 February 2025, says its own organization does not hold records in the same format as a GP or hospital, and that it will usually process requests within 30 days once it has proof of identity. That statement concerns that organization only.

Mind's overview, which applies to England and Wales and was published in June 2026, explains the general position. You usually have a right to ask organizations for copies of personal data, protected by the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, both amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. You make a written or verbal request, usually called a subject access request. Organizations have 1 calendar month to respond and are not usually allowed to charge a fee. Data can be withheld in some situations, and Mind says the organization must still tell you.

If a request is refused or slow

Mind's page on problems with asking for personal data (June 2026) suggests steps in order for England and Wales. First, write to the organization to remind it of the request, mentioning its duties, and set a further reasonable deadline such as 7 or 14 days. Second, complain through the organization's own complaints process, noting that from June 2026 organizations have a legal duty to run a formal data protection complaints procedure. Third, complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the independent body that oversees these duties.

Asking for corrections

In the United States, HHS says that if you think information in your record is incorrect you can request a change. The provider or plan must respond, and if it created the information it must amend inaccurate or incomplete information. If it does not agree, you have the right to submit a statement of disagreement that must be added to your record.

In England, Mind distinguishes information that is wrong, such as an incorrect birthdate or a mistake about a prescribed medication, from information you disagree with. For the first kind there is a right to rectification, and the organization has 1 month to respond. For the second kind, such as a medical opinion, Mind says you cannot force the organization to change or remove it, but you can ask it to add a note that you disagree.

Using what you receive

A copy may help when preparing for an appointment or advocating for your own care. A clinician can explain what an entry means, and requesting an advocate is a separate step.

The short version

In the United States, ask your provider, expect a response normally within 30 days, accept that reasonable copying fees may apply, and know that psychotherapy notes are treated separately. In England, make a subject access request, expect a response within one calendar month and usually no fee, and use the escalation steps if it goes wrong. All of this is as at the cited pages and may change.