Social indicators and mental health planning: an empirical case study.
This paper reports data from a series of studies designed to provide an empirical basis for making judgments regarding the utility and validity of social indicators as a method for assessing the need for mental health services. The following findings are included: (a) The methodological sophistication of the social indicators approach used did not greatly affect the utility of the technique as a means of identifying low- and high-need subareas in a large standard metropolitan statistical area. (b) Correlations between social indicator rankings of tracts/enumeration districts and mental health needs as determined by psychiatric scale scores varied in two different counties. (c) The degree of tract/district socioecological homogeneity appears to account for the diverse correlations. (d) Tract and enumeration district social indicator rankings uniquely account for less than 50% of the explained variance of individual mental health scores when analyzed in a regression equation which includes socioeconomic status as a variable.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006285:Health Planning; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012924:Social Conditions; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States