A spatial analysis of Los Angeles County’s burden of serious mental illness in relation to public mental health service providers
Journal of Public Mental Health
ISSN: 1746-5729
Article publication date: 18 September 2019
Issue publication date: 15 October 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify regions of Los Angeles County with high burdens of serious mental illness and determine whether these regions align with those experiencing the greatest economic hardship.
Design/methodology/approach
This cross-sectional study analyzed the estimated prevalence of serious mental illness and the locations of publicly funded mental health service providers within each census tract of Los Angeles County. The burden of serious mental illness was calculated for each census tract using these variables and an optimized hot spot analysis was conducted to determine which regions were the most underserved in terms of serious mental illness.
Findings
There is a significantly higher burden of serious mental illness in Southeastern Los Angeles and Pomona Valley than in the rest of Los Angeles County (p = 0.01). The same can be said regarding the Lancaster-Palmdale area and San Fernando Valley (p = 0.05). These areas do appear to align with the areas of Los Angeles County with an economic hardship index in the fourth quartile.
Originality/value
Mental health initiatives targeting the four hot spot regions should be given priority by the County of Los Angeles. This is especially true when allocating funds from Proposition 63, which aims to address mental health disparities in underserved, unserved or inappropriately served populations.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was aided by the third-party organizations responsible for collecting and maintaining the data sets utilized: the Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS Steering Committee which maintains the Los Angeles Data Portal, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health which regularly updates the locations of publicly funded mental health service providers and UCLA which conducted the 2014 Health Interview Survey. The author would also like to recognize Mark Bloomfield and Ryan Murphy, both of Saint Louis University, for providing their expertise and guidance. The author has no relevant financial or non-financial relationships to disclose. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Citation
Simmons, S. (2019), "A spatial analysis of Los Angeles County’s burden of serious mental illness in relation to public mental health service providers", Journal of Public Mental Health, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 231-239. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-03-2019-0034
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited