Any Place but Here! Mental Health Facilities as Noxious Neighbors

This paper describes an experimental study that attempts to uncover some of the reasons why community residents find mental health facilities undesirable as potential neighbors. Respondents were asked to evaluate a variety of public facilities by indicating how similar they are in terms of “noxiousness.'’They were also asked how close they would prefer to live to each of the different facility types. From the results of the study it is possible to suggest some alternative strategies for siting new mental health facilities, such as co-locating them with other human-service agencies or locating them within larger facilities.