Brigid MacCarthy

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF MEASURING NEEDS IN THE LONG-TERM MENTALLY-ILL - THE MRC NEEDS FOR CARE ASSESSMENT

We report the development of a new procedure for assessing the needs for treatment and care of the long-term mentally ill. This procedure covers 21 areas of clinical and social functioning, and in each of these specifies appropriate interventions. Decision rules are described which permit problems in functioning to be primarily classified as a met need, an unmet need, or as involving no need, and which allow the identification of various secondary needs. We report preliminary data on the reliability and validity of this procedure and discuss its potential applications in the care of the long-term mentally ill.

Needs for care among the long-term mentally ill: a report from the Camberwell high contact survey

We report the results of a survey of the needs for items of care of 145 long-term users of psychiatric day-hospitals and day-centres in Camberwell. The overall ratio of met to unmet need was almost exactly 5:1. Need was shown to vary according to chronicity, degree of participation, and placement in day-hospital or day-centre. Specific areas of functioning and specific types of care were identified in which there was significant overprovision or underprovision. The utility of our measures, and their ability to identify clinically significant unmet need, are discussed.

The problems of people in long-term psychiatric day care; An introduction to the Camberwell High Contact Survey

The aims of the Camberwell High Contract Survey (CHCS) were to develop and test a systematic needs assessment procedure and use it to evaluate the services provided to long-term users of day centres and sheltered residential accommodation (excluding hospital wards). This paper describes the background to the study, the sample of 145 attenders and their characteristics, their clinical and social problems and the care provided for them.