Entire neighborhoods in north and east Houston have few to no mental-health providers—sometimes just a single licensed therapist—according to a new University of Houston study mapping access across the city.
Some of Houston’s most economically distressed neighborhoods have fewer than two licensed mental-health providers serving an entire ZIP code, the study explained—while the city’s most affluent areas average between eight and eleven therapists per ZIP code.
The research analyzed 96 Houston ZIP codes, which represents nearly the entire city and parts of the surrounding region. ZIP codes were grouped by economic disadvantage levels, and researchers then mapped where licensed mental-health professionals are located. In the ZIP codes facing the highest economic hardship, the study found the lowest concentration of therapists, including several neighborhoods in north and east Houston that had no practicing mental-health professionals at all—not in-person, or online…