Human service providers and scholars have often touted education and information awareness strategies as necessary elements in overcoming community rejection of human services. However, information can affect perceptions in positive or negative ways. This paper presents an analysis of the first national survey of attitudes toward human services in the United States to explore the linkages between information and acceptance of human service facilities. Mental health care facilities provide the focus for analysis. The findings suggest that most respondents believe that they are not "very well" informed about mental disability, that they often do not have personal experience with mental health care, and that the information that they do obtain often emanates from the popular media (particularly television). Ordered logit methods are used to explore the influence of information on attitudes toward group homes for mentally retarded persons and toward mental health outpatient facilities. Implications of this analysis for understanding the NIMBY syndrome are discussed.
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