[Lack of Collaboration, Lack of Staff or Disappearance of the Data: the Difficult Access to the Psychiatric Archives].

This paper presents the way we try to track the history of mental health services offered to residents of official language minority communities throughout Northern and Eastern Ontario. The study also holds an interest in the post-deinstitutionalization paths of patients suffering from mental health conditions. Our research strand concerns Northern Ontario, its patient associations, its services, its specialists and its institutions and the access to hospitals archives.