Housing attributes and serious mental illness: implications for research and practice

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Public Health
• Sociology

Background:

• The relationship between housing attributes and serious mental illness (SMI) is complex and warrants critical review.
• Existing research often conceptualizes housing as an outcome, an input, or both in relation to mental health.
• Gaps in current research necessitate a focused agenda for future studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically review existing literature on housing attributes and serious mental illness.
• To identify significant gaps in the current body of research.
• To generate testable hypotheses and propose a future research agenda.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of studies published between 1975 and March 2000.
• Inclusion criteria focused on quantitative evidence, systematic sampling, and analytic techniques.
• Review of 32 studies examining housing as an outcome, input, or both.

Main Results:

• Independent housing demonstrated the strongest association with increased housing and neighborhood satisfaction.
• Settings with fewer occupants were linked to better outcomes.
• Small-scale, quality noninstitutional environments may reduce disruptive behavior in certain contexts.

Conclusions:

• Most studies exhibited methodological weaknesses and failed to address key hypotheses.
• A critical need exists for a unified research agenda with standardized measures for housing as both input and outcome.
• Future research should focus on developing and applying consistent methodologies to better understand housing's role in SMI.