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| MENTAL RECORDS SCATTERED ON NC HIGHWAY |
| AP |
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| Charlotte, NC - Hundreds of confidential files containing names and personal details of mental patients were spilled across a three-block area of Charlotte, NC and officials are trying to find out why.
The files filled at least two garbage bags. They included the names of at least two dozen clients of Mecklenburg County’s Area Mental Health Department, as well as diagnoses and other details about their cases. The files were current – from 1995 through 1997. They were scattered across an area near where the documents were housed. The papers were supposed to be shredded. But Peter Safir, executive director of the area mental health agency, said they somehow got mixed with the regular trash, then blew away from the garbage truck that picked them up. He doesn’t know why they were put in the trash in the first place." This is a serious breach of potential public trust," Safir said. "I have a statutory obligation to protect the privacy of those records. I’m apologetic and embarrassed." |