Psychiatric residences: notification, NIMBY, and neighborhood relations

Federal legislation has given mental health agencies the authority to forego notifying neighbors when establishing shared, supervised houses and apartments for individuals with severe mental illness, but many continue to notify neighbors in the belief that outreach enhances community integration. This study examined the associations between notification strategies and initial neighborhood opposition and longer-term neighborhood relations.

Telephone interviews were conducted with 169 mental health administrators in seven states who described the notification strategy and short- and long-term neighborhood responses to their most recently established shared, supervised residence. Additional data on neighborhood relations were collected in interviews with 138 staff who worked on site at the residences described by the mental health administrators.

Just under half of the agencies used a strategy that involved notification of neighbors, and those organizations were significantly more likely to experience initial opposition (59% of notifiers experienced opposition compared with 35% of non-notifiers). Those who notified neighbors were more likely to initiate activities such as an open house with neighbors after the site was established. There were no significant associations between current neighborhood attitudes and initial notification strategies or initial opposition. Agencies that initiated postsiting social activities with neighbors were significantly more likely to report "very accepting" attitudes.

Administrators who use notification may experience higher levels of initial opposition, but longer-term neighborhood relations may not vary significantly regardless of whether neighbors were notified or whether initial opposition was present. Some agency-sponsored postsiting activities may facilitate substantive connections with neighbors.