Examining Associations between Psychiatric Disability and Proximity to Neighborhood Amenities

A body of research in the 1970s and 80s noted how persons with psychiatric disability became concentrated in economically disadvantaged, inner city neighborhoods following deinstitutionalization. This study continues in the tradition of that “geographies of mental illness” literature. Specifically, it assesses the degree to which persons diagnosed with severe mental illness live closer to a range of amenities (parks, grocery stores, restaurants, etc.) when compared to a representative sample of the overall population. Focusing on Philadelphia, the addresses of 15,246 Medicaid recipients diagnosed with serious mental illness (295.XX and 296.XX) are geocoded, and an equal number of points representative of the general population are generated using the Hawth's Tools extension to ArcGIS. Locations of community amenities are obtained from a variety of sources, including InfoUSA and a number of city agencies. This study compares the density (i.e., concentration) of and distance to these resources for individuals with psychiatric disabilities and the general population using non-parametric t-tests. Preliminary findings show that individuals with serious mental illnesses live closer to most community resources. Furthermore, areas in which they live have more public amenities (e.g., parks, playgrounds, places of worship) as well as resources pertaining to daily needs (e.g., supermarkets); however, the general population has more discretionary amenities (e.g., coffee shops, exercise facilities) in their neighborhoods. The implications of this will be discussed.