Commentary. People with severe mental illness have higher mortality rates, culminating in about 20 years of lost life compared with that of the general population, and momentum is growing to reduce this inequality.1,  2 In the general population, neighbourhood social context is related to mortality, but whether such patterns also exist for people with severe mental illness has received little attention. Understanding this relationship could allow us to tailor social interventions for this distinctive population. The study by Jayati Das-Munshi and colleagues3 in The Lancet Psychiatry represents a welcome step in that direction, linking higher neighbourhood ethnic density to lower mortality rates among people with severe mental illness from ethnic minority backgrounds. These results raise the intriguing possibility that factors associated with ethnic density might promote longevity among people with severe mental illness.. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/2HjNDf3