Citation

Ghorbanzadeh M, Kim K, Ozguven EE, Horner MW. Transp. Res. D Trans. Environ. 2020; 81: e102278.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.trd.2020.102278

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The demand for mental health services has been growing stronger over the last couple of decades. This indicates the need to study and assess the access to these mental health services especially with a focus on the vulnerable populations having the greatest need. As such, this paper presents a Geographical Information Systems (GIS)-based analysis in order to study and evaluate the accessibility of mental health facilities using the information on the spatial distributions of population and facilities, and regional traffic characteristics. For this purpose, different age group segments are utilized including the total population as well as those aged between 18 and 21, 22 and 49, 50 and 64, and those aged over 65 and 85. Focusing on the State of Florida, spatially detailed accessibility metrics are calculated with regard to healthcare facilities using travel times between population block groups and these critical mental health facilities. These estimates are used to calculate the weighted county accessibility scores for each county.

FINDINGS clearly delineate those counties that lack access to mental facilities, especially those in Northwest Florida, a demographically diverse and substantially rural region. This type of analysis can help planners and policy makers develop better strategies in order to provide adequate mental health care options needed in targeted locations.

Language: en

Keywords

Geographic information systems; Mental health services; Spatial accessibility; Vulnerable populations