How to get your mental health records in New Zealand

The short answer: yes. Your mental health records are health information, and in New Zealand you have a legal right to ask for the health information a provider holds about you. That includes notes from a psychologist, psychiatrist, counsellor or GP, and records from a hospital, an inpatient unit or a community mental health team. You do not have to say why you want them.

The longer answer is that mental health information is one of the few areas where a provider can, in limited circumstances, hold some of it back. This guide explains when that can happen, what they have to do instead, and what you can do if you are refused. It was checked against the legislation in November 2026. It is general information, not legal advice.

The short version

• You can ask. Rule 6 of the Health Information Privacy Code 2020 gives you the right to access your health information, from public and private providers alike.
• Timing: the provider must respond as soon as reasonably practicable, and no later than 20 working days after receiving your request. It can extend that only in limited cases, and must tell you.
• Cost: usually free. Public providers cannot charge unless the Privacy Commissioner has authorised it. Private providers, including private psychologists and counsellors, can charge only for a repeat request within 12 months, or for copies of x-rays and scans.
• Limits: a provider can withhold information about your mental or physical health if, after consulting your health practitioner where practicable, it is satisfied that giving it to you would be likely to prejudice your health. Information about other people can also be held back. Neither is a reason to refuse the whole file.
• If you are refused: you must be told why and that you can complain. Complain to the provider first, then to the Privacy Commissioner.

What the law says

The Privacy Act 2020 gives everyone a right of access to their personal information, in information privacy principle 6. For health information, the Health Information Privacy Code 2020 applies that right through its own rule 6, which says you are entitled to receive from a health agency, on request, “confirmation of whether the health agency holds any health information about them” and “access to their health information”.

The Code covers every health agency, public or private and whatever its size, so a counsellor working on their own has the same obligation as a hospital. There is no general exemption for a psychologist’s or psychiatrist’s session notes: they are your health information like the rest of your file. If you have read American content about “psychotherapy notes”, that is a rule under a United States law, and it does not apply here.

The procedure comes from Part 4 of the Privacy Act. Our guide to getting your medical records in New Zealand covers it in full; the parts that matter most here are:

• Timing (section 44): the provider must respond “as soon as is reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than 20 working days after the day on which the request is received”.
• Extensions (section 48): only for a large quantity of information, consultations needed to decide the request, or complexity. The provider must tell you within the 20 working days, give the length of the extension and the reasons, and tell you that you can complain to the Commissioner about it.
• Charges (sections 66 and 67, and clause 6 of the Code): a public provider, such as a Health New Zealand hospital or mental health service, can charge only if the Privacy Commissioner has authorised it. A private provider can make a reasonable charge only for providing “the same or substantially the same health information” again within 12 months, or for a copy of an x-ray, video, MRI, PET or CAT scan. If a charge is likely to exceed $30, it must give you an estimate first.
• Form (section 56): you can ask for a copy, paper or electronic, a chance to look at the records, or a summary, and the provider must use the way you prefer unless one of a few listed reasons applies.

When access can be limited, and what has to happen instead

This is the part that is different for mental health records. Section 49(1)(b) of the Privacy Act lets a provider refuse access if, “after consultation is undertaken (where practicable) by or on behalf of the agency with the health practitioner of the individual concerned”, it is satisfied that the information relates to you and that its disclosure, “being information that relates to the physical or mental health of the individual concerned”, “would be likely to prejudice the health of the individual concerned”.

For this purpose a health practitioner means a medical practitioner, or a registered practitioner whose scope of practice includes assessing a person’s mental capacity. Separately, section 49(1)(a) allows a refusal where disclosure “would be likely to pose a serious threat to the life, health, or safety of any individual”.

These are narrow grounds, not a general permission to keep your notes from you. And a refusal is not the end of it:

• Only the part that is the problem. Where there is a good reason to withhold some information in a document, the provider can give you a copy with that information removed (section 55). It can also give you an excerpt or summary (section 56), or give access with conditions on how you use or share the information instead of refusing (section 54).
• They must tell you why. A refusal must state the reason and your right to complain to the Privacy Commissioner (section 46).
• Information about other people can be withheld where giving it to you would involve “the unwarranted disclosure of the affairs of another individual” (section 53(b)), for example something a family member told your clinician. That should not stop you getting the rest.

How to make the request

1. Work out who holds what. Your psychologist, psychiatrist, counsellor or GP, any hospital or inpatient unit, the community mental health team, and any counselling service, such as an employee assistance programme or a university health service. Each keeps its own records.
2. Check your patient portal. If your GP practice offers a patient portal, some letters and results may already be there. It is rarely the whole record, and session notes from a psychologist or counsellor are unlikely to be in it.
3. Ask in writing. A verbal request is valid, but an email gives you a dated record. Give your name, date of birth and contact details, the dates of treatment, and what you want, such as all your records, or the notes and reports from a particular period. Public services usually handle this through their health records or privacy team.
4. Say how you want to receive them. An electronic copy is usually quickest. If you would rather go through the records with your clinician, say so. That is a choice you can make, not something you have to accept.
5. Keep a copy of your request and the date you sent it. The 20 working days run from the day after it is received.

If you are refused, or nobody answers

1. Complain to the provider first, in writing. Every health agency must designate someone to deal with privacy complaints, and most must acknowledge a complaint in writing within 5 working days (clause 7 of the Code).
2. Then go to the Privacy Commissioner. Refusing access without a proper reason, taking too long, or charging when the Code does not allow it can each be an interference with your privacy.

A word on reading your own records

Clinical notes are written for clinicians. They can use blunt language, shorthand and diagnostic labels that read very differently on the page than they did in the room. Some people find that confronting. It can help to read them with someone you trust, or to ask your clinician to go through them with you. If reading them brings up something difficult, you can call or text 1737, free, at any time, to talk with a trained counsellor. In an emergency, call 111.

If you think something in your records is wrong, you can ask for it to be corrected under rule 7 of the Code, and if the provider will not change it, you can ask it to attach your statement of the correction. If you were treated under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992, your access rights under the Code still apply; the service’s privacy officer can tell you if anything else is relevant to your records.

Where exora fits

Once you have your records, you can upload them to exora along with the rest of your health documents. exora reads them and organises the conditions, medicines and history into one record you control, with every detail linked back to the page it came from. You choose what to upload and who, if anyone, it is shared with. How exora handles your information is set out in our privacy policy. exora is free to start, with an optional membership.

exora does not connect to your psychologist’s software, to your patient portal or to Health New Zealand. It works with the documents you request and decide to add.

Sources

• Health Information Privacy Code 2020, rule 6 (access), rule 7 (correction), clause 6 (charges) and clause 7 (complaints)
• Privacy Act 2020, sections 44 (20 working days), 46 (refusal notice), 48 (extensions), 49 (protection of the individual, including health), 53 (other reasons, including other people’s affairs), 54 to 56 (conditions, deletions and form of access), 66 and 67 (charges)
• 1737: free call or text, 24/7

Checked against the legislation as of November 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.