A Deeper Analysis

From the initial analysis, there seemed to be a positive relationship between exposure to crime and mental health-related visits. Neighbourhoods with higher crime incidence appeared to also have more visits to the emergency department for mental health and addiction-related issues. Oppositely, regions with lower counts of crime seemed to be associated with lower visit rates to the emergency department.

To further validate these observations, a scatterplot of the data as well as the correlation coefficient of the relationship between crime and mental health-related issues was created using Excel software. The scatterplot illustrates each neighbourhood's crime count and its corresponding visit rate from 2018-20. The slideshow below presents the scatterplot and discussess different aspects of it to provide a better understanding of the data. By clicking on the arrow (found on the right side of the slideshow), viewers can see several discussions of the scatterplot.

The correlation coefficient of the data describes the strength of the relationship between crime and mental health-related issues within Toronto. It is also included within the discussion of the scatterplot below.

Neighbourhood Crime vs Mental Health and Addiction-related Visits to the Emergency Department for Toronto Neighbourhoods (2018-20)

1. Overview

The scatterplot depicts an overall increasing trend, indicating a positive relationship between crime and mental health-related issues throughout Toronto neighbourhoods from 2018-20. The majority of neighbourhoods are found between 250 to 1500 counts of crime, and they reinforce this increasing pattern. The correlation coefficient for the data is 0.62, further indicating a relatively strong relationship between crime and mental health.

2. High Crime & Mental Health Visits

The red circle highlights an outlier that represents the neighbourhood, Moss Park. Though this region stands apart from the rest of the data, it still reflects the overall positive trend as it had a high crime count and a high number of mental health-related visits to the emergency department over three years. Although this particular case adds to the general pattern observed in the previous slide, research as to why Moss Park had high crime incidence and visit rates is needed to put forth policies or interventions that will actually make a positive difference for the residents of Moss Park.

3. High Crime & Low Mental Health Visits

The red circle now emphasizes two neighbourhoods, Yonge-Bay Corridor and West Humber-Clairville, that had higher crime counts, but lower visit rates. For these neighbourhoods, it could be the case that there is limited support for mental health-issues beyond the emergency department (ED) within these neighbourhoods, making visits to the ED less worthwhile. Or perhaps there is something else within these regions that are preventing residents from seeking help. To further understand why this pattern of high crime, but low visit rates occurred, case studies about these neighbourhoods and their respective characteristics are needed.

4. Low Crime & High Mental Health Visits

The red circle focuses on two neighbourhoods, Taylor-Massey and South Parkdale, that saw relatively lower crime counts, but higher mental health-related visits to the emergency department. This could indicate that these neighbourhoods have many services in place to support residents and their mental health, allowing them to seek help more often. Again, as with the case on the previous slide, more research on each neighbourhood would be beneficial to truly grasp their respective circumstances.

Main Takeaways

In summary, the main takeways from this deeper analysis of the data are:

There is a positive relationship between neighbourhood crime exposure and mental health-related issues within Toronto neighbourhoods.
- This is further reflected by the correlation coefficient of 0.62 which indicates a moderately strong relationship between crime and mental health.

As there are several neighbourhoods that appear to deviate from this overall pattern, further research that focuses on each neighbourhood separately is needed to fully grasp each neighbourhood's respective circumstance in terms of crime and mental health.
- Case studies on each neighbourhood within Toronto will help to develop practical and effective policies/services that are tailored to the core needs of the residents in each region.
- These policies or services could be ones that focus on crime prevention or that offer additional support for the mental health and wellbeing of residents such as helplines or community programs that promote wellbeing.

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