SATELLITE MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES

ABSTRACT In the absence of rigorous procedures for prescribing ideal treatment facilities for the mentally disabled, it is difficult to justify the extensive system of mental health clinics and their satellites which has been introduced into residential neighborhoods. The facilities are sited primarily in low income communities which are threatened with institutional saturation. The geographical concentration of satellite mental health facilities is largely explained by the absence of precise locational guidelines, and by a decision process which is fundamentally a conflict between service producer and service funder. Location, per se, is of peripheral concern in this conflict. Conflict resolution is typically achieved by some expedient compromise, in which undue weight is given to the externalities of the proposed allocation.