Effect of racial and ethnic composition of neighborhoods in San Francisco on rates of mental health-related 911 calls.

Objective: This study investigated the association between the racial and ethnic residential composition of San Francisco neighborhoods and the rate of mental health-related 911 calls.

Methods: A total of 1,341,608 emergency calls (28,197 calls related to mental health) to San Francisco's 911 system were made from January 2001 through June 2003. Police sector data in the call records were overlaid onto U.

Measuring community preferences for public mental health services: pilot test of a mail survey method.

This study tested the feasibility of a simple mail survey approach to measuring community preferences for mental health services. A 38 item survey detected statistically significant differences in preferences for four central goals, finding that community members most value Focus on the Severely Mentally Ill, followed by Community Safety and Environment, Service Quality and Original Community Mental Health Goals. Some procedural problems were encountered that reduced the response rates, however, the study yielded information that suggests improved procedures for future surveys.