Abstract
Background
The identification of needs for support and service in clients with long–term mental disabilities is usually not done by staff personnel from both psychiatric care and social services. However, such a process is probably necessary in order to provide adequate psychiatric care and social services.
Aims
To estimate the prevalence of mentally disabled clients and investigate whether staff from psychiatric care and social services identified the same individuals and the same number of needs in the same areas.
Methods
Clients from a defined catchment area were identified during a three–month period. A questionnaire was developed to collect socio–demographic information and to assess needs for support and service.
Results
The study identified 1,290 clients with needs with a prevalence of 5.72/1000 inhabitants. More than half of the clients needed support in activities of daily living. Only 18.1% of the clients were identified by both organizations. In general, the staff from psychiatric care and social services identified the same needs at a group level. However, at the individual level, agreement was quite low.
Conclusions
The staffs from both psychiatric care and social services are necessary to evaluate the needs of support and services in clients with mental disabilities.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th Edition. Washington DC, American Psychiatric Association
Bachrack L (1996) Deinstitutionalisation: promises, problems and prospects. In: Knutsen H, Thornicroft G (eds) Mental health service evaluation. University Press, Cambridge, pp 3–18
Bollini P, Mollica RF (1989) Surviving without the asylum. An overview of the studies on the Italian reform movement. J Nerv Ment Dis 177:607–615
Borgå P, Widerlöv B, Stefansson CG, Cullberg J (1992) Social conditions in a total population with long-term functional psychosis in three different areas of Stockholm County. Acta Psychiatr Scand 85:465–473
Cicchetti DV, Feinstein AR (1990) High agreement but low kappa: II. Resolving the paradoxes. J Clin Epidemiol 43:551–558
Cohen J (1960) A coefficient of agreement for normal scales. Educ Psychol Measurement 20:37–46
Ford J, Young D, Perez BC, Obermeyer RL, Rohner DG (1992) Needs assessment for persons with severe mental illness: what services are needed for successful community living? Comm Ment Health J 28:491–503
Halldin J (1984) Prevalence of mental disorder in an urban population in central Sweden. Acta Psychiatr Scand 69:503–518
Hansson L, Vinding HR, Mackeprang T, Sourander A, Werdelin G, Bengtsson-Tops A, Bjarnason O, Dybbro J, Nilsson L, Sandlund M, Sorgaard K Middelboe T (2001) Comparison of key worker and patient assessment of needs in schizophrenic patients living in the community: a Nordic multicenter study. Acta Psychiatr Scand 103:45–51
Jansson L, Sonnander K, Wiesel F-A (2003) Clients with longterm mental disabilities in a Swedish county – conditions of life, needs of support and unmet needs of service provided by the public health and social service sectors. Eur Psychiatry 18:296–305
McNulty SV, Duncan L, Semple M, Jackson GA, Pelosi AJ (2003) Care needs of elderly people with schizophrenia.Assessment of an epidemiologically defined cohort in Scotland. Br J Psychiatry 182:241–247
Middelboe T, Mackeprang T, Hansson L, Werdelin G, Karlsson H, Bjarnason O, Bengtsson-Tops A, Dybbro J, Nilsson LL, Sandlund M, Sorgaard KW (2001) The Nordic study on schizophrenic patients living in the community. Subjective needs and perceived help. Eur Psychiatry 16:207–214
Nordentoft M, Knudsen HC, Schulsinger F (1992) Housing conditions and residential needs of psychiatric patients in Copenhagen. Acta Psychiatr Scand 85:385–389
Phelan, M, Slade M, Thornicroft G Dunn G, Holloway F, Wykes T, Strathdee G, Loftus L, McCrone P, Hayward P (1995) The Camberwell Assessment of Need: the validity and reliability of an instrument to assess the needs of people with severe mental illness. Br J Psychiatry 167:589–595
Slade M, Phelan M, Thornicroft G, Parkman S (1996) The Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN): comparison of assessments by professionals and patients of the needs of severely mentally ill. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 31:109–113
Slade M, Phelan M, Thornicroft G (1998) A comparison of needs assessed by professionals and by an epidemiologically representative sample of patients with psychosis. Psychol Med 28:543–550
Stefansson CG, Cullberg J (1986) Introducing community mental health services. Acta Psychiatr Scand 74:368–378
Stefansson CG, Cullberg J, Steinholtz Ekecrantz L (1990) From community mental health services to specialized psychiatry: the effects of a change in policy on patient accessibility and care utilization. Acta Psychiatr Scand 82:157–164
The Swedish government bill 1993/94:218 (1994) Psykiskt stördas villkor.Allmänna förlaget, Stockholm
Widerlöv B, Lindström E, von Knorring L (1997) One-year prevalence of long-term functional psychosis in three different areas of Uppsala. Acta Psychiatr Scand 96:452–458
World Health Organization (1992) Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10).Geneva:WHO
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jansson, L., Sonnander, K. & Wiesel, FA. Needs assessed by psychiatric health care and social services in a defined cohort of clients with mental disabilities. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 255, 57–64 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-004-0537-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-004-0537-7