title: The "carers' needs assessment for Schizophrenia": an instrument to assess the needs of relatives caring for schizophrenia patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  For the purpose of service planning, an instrument was developed for the systematic assessment of interventions needed by the caregivers of schizophrenia patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The development of this instrument was based on in-depth interviews and focus groups. It consists of 18 areas describing common problems of schizophrenia caregivers. For each of these problem areas several possible interventions are offered. Concurrent validity, inter-rater and retest reliability were tested among 50 caregivers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The kappa values for the inter-rater reliability are predominantly excellent (kappa > 0.75). The values for the retest reliability show a wide range between excellent (kappa > 0.75) and fair agreement (kappa 0.40-0.60). The significant correlations found between summary scores of this new instrument and several sub-scales of the Family Problem Questionnaire support the assumption that the concurrent validity is satisfactory.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that this instrument is both valid and reliable.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. johannes.wancata@meduniwien.ac.at
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wancata
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krautgartner
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Berner
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scumaci
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Freidl
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alexandrowicz
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rittmannsberger
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000451:nursing*