Scope and Content: To assist the Dept. of Mental Health in ensuring that there were adequate services for mentally ill and mentally retarded people in Massachusetts, the department’s evaluation unit conducted mental surveys and assessments of services in 1976 and 1978.  Surveys and assessments (on photocopied forms) were completed by area and regional department staff.
Arrangement: Arranged by service region and area
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Scope and Content: The Subdivision of Research and Statistics was established in the Division of Aid and Relief (Dept. of Public Welfare) in 1937.  By 1939 it was renamed Bureau of Research and Statistics and by 1940 was an independent unit within the department.  It was renamed successively: Division of Research and Planning (1970), Division of Statistics and Analysis (1971), Office of Research and Planning (mid-1970s), Office of Research and Evaluation (1979), and Office of Research, Evaluation, and Planning (1983)
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject, within broad categories
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Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject
Notes: Cartons numbered 11-28
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Scope and Content: The Division of Mental Retardation of the Dept. of Mental Health had administrative oversight of public institutions for mentally retarded clients and care of such individuals living outside institutions, as does its successor the Dept. of Mental Retardation.  Much of this material was created by the division in response to consent decrees imposed by federal courts resulting from suits brought by client advocates and guardians.  A court-appointed monitor directed detailed corrections of individual treatment facilities and client programs during this period.  These subject files contain correspondence with advocacy groups, statistical information, internal memoranda, certification reports, assessments of institutional needs, surveys of conditions and services, and correction reports.
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Scope and Content: Since 1971 the Executive Office of Human Services (Executive Office of Health and Human Services since 1992) has been responsible through its constituent agencies for the delivery of a wide range of services to persons with financial, health, social, protective, rehabilitation, and correctional needs. Its role is one of management and fiscal oversight, coordination of interagency planning and program development, and policy analysis.  Series was created to provide information for carrying out these responsibilities.
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Scope and Content: The State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers, established in 1877, opened in 1878 as Danvers Lunatic Hospital. It was renamed Danvers Insane Hospital in 1898 and Danvers State Hospital in 1909. It was closed in 1992.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: Cushing Hospital in Framingham, Mass., intended for the care and custody of elderly persons, was purchased by the Commonwealth from the federal government in 1955, opened in 1957 under the Dept. of Mental Health, transferred to the Dept. of Public Health in 1984, and closed in 1991.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Transferred to Archives by Tewksbury Hospital, Tewksbury, Mass., Mar. 1999
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Scope and Content: The Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children conducted at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind from 1848 was incorporated by Massachusetts as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth in 1850.  It was renamed Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded in 1883 and Walter E. Fernald State School in 1925.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject
Notes: Scheduled as: Administrative subject files
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts Resolves 1846, c 117 appointed Commissioners on Idiocy to inquire on: the condition of idiots in the commonwealth and if anything can be done for them. The commission’s report, written by Samuel Gridley Howe of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, led to the establishment by Resolves 1848, c 65 of the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children, located at the Perkins Institution. The school was incorporated as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth (St 1850, c 150), located near Perkins in South Boston, with Howe serving as president until his death in 1876. It was renamed the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded by St 1883, c 239, reflecting the establishment of a separate asylum department for those beyond school age or not capable of being helped by the school’s instruction. Funds for the construction of a new facility in Waltham were provided by Resolves 1888, c 82, and occupation of the new site began in 1890, with the South Boston facility closing in 1892. St 1925, c 293 renamed the institution the Walter E. Fernald State School, in honor of the superintendent of the school, 1887-1924. A 2003 gubernatorial initiative to close the Fernald School (known as the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center since 1993) by 2007 was contested during the subsequent decade, until the institution was shut down permanently in Nov. 2014.
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Scheduled as: Correspondence.  Outgoing correspondence for 1894-1895 scheduled as: Outgoing correspondence
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Scope and Content: Pondville Hospital was operated by the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health from 1927 to 1981 as a facility to conduct cancer research and to treat cancer patients.  The superintendent’s office maintained files on the institutional acquisition of land in Norfolk and Walpole, including that for the predecessor facility on that site, Norfolk State Hospital (for the treatment of alcoholism).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives, Feb. 1982
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