Who Belongs?: An Analysis of Ex-Mental Patients' Subjective Involvement in the Neighborhood

What causes people with psychiatric disabilities to feel they belong in their neighborhood? This article examines predictors of belonging for a sample of former psychiatric patients in community settings. The authors consider what differentiates ex-patients who feel they belong in their neighborhoods from those who do not. For the sample as a whole, belonging primarily results from satisfaction with the dwelling. It depends neither on reception by neighbors nor on whether they live in sheltered care. Furthermore, there is nothing about sheltered care (i.e., a supervised residence) that makes people feel less belonging. For long-term sheltered care residents, belonging depends on neighbor relations and ease of arranging activities with house residents.