The Department began as three mental hospitals: the first at Middletown in 1867, called Connecticut Hospital for the Insane, now known as Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH); the next, in 1904, Norwich State Hospital; and the third, beginning in 1933, Fairfield Hills State Hospital. Eventually all three were combined into one department. The current (2002) agency is the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. This is the "single state agency for providing comprehensive mental health and substance abuse services throughout Connecticut." Records in this group include those for CVH, 1867-1976: superintendent's files and books, trustee minutes, surgical records, legal opinions, payroll ledgers and employee records, scrapbooks of activities, employee attendance records, records of the nursing school, and miscellany of operational records. There are also patient records from Norwich State Hospital, 1904-66, and admission and discharge registers from Fairfield Hills, 1933-72. In addition, the group contains minutes of the Commission on Alcoholism, 1945-59; monthly reports and papers of the Joint Board of Mental Health, 1948-55; files of the Associate Commissioner for Children and Adolescents, 1964-76; subject and grant files; and Advisory Board minutes for the Alcohol and Drug Dependence Division, 1956-75.
