Individual unmet needs for care: are they sensitive as outcome criterion for the effectiveness of mental health services interventions?
BACKGROUND
Mental health interventions should demonstrate an effect on patients' functioning as well as his/her needs, in particular on unmet needs whose assessment depends on the perspective of either the patient or the clinician. However, individual met and unmet needs appear to change over time, qualitatively and quantitatively, raising questions about their sensitivity to change and about the association between level of needs and treatment.


METHODS
Data on baseline and follow-up need assessment in community mental health services in four European countries in the context of a cluster randomised trial on a novel mental health service intervention were used, which involved 102 clinicians with key worker roles and 320 patients with schizophrenia or related psychotic disorders. Need assessment was performed with the Camberwell assessment of needs short appraisal schedule (CANSAS) among patients as well as clinicians. Focus is the sensitivity to change in unmet needs over time as well as the concordance between patient and clinician ratings and their relationship with treatment condition.


RESULTS
At follow-up 294 patients (92%) had a full need assessment, while clinician rated needs were available for 302 patients (94%). Generally, the total number of met needs remained quite stable, but unmet needs decreased significantly over time, according to patients as well as to clinicians. Sensitivity to change of unmet needs is quite high: about two third of all unmet needs made a transition to no or met need, and more than half of all unmet needs at follow-up were new. Agreement between patient and clinician on unmet needs at baseline as well as follow-up was rather low, without any indication of a specific treatment effect.


CONCLUSIONS
Individual unmet needs appear to be quite sensitive to change over time but as yet less suitable as outcome criterion of treatment or specific interventions.
Wiersma
Durk
D
Dept. of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 30.001, Groningen 9700 RB, The Netherlands. durk.wiersma@med.umcg.nl
van den Brink
Rob
R
Wolters
Kerstin
K
McCabe
Rosemarie
R
Bullenkamp
Jens
J
Hansson
Lars
L
Lauber
Christoph
C
Martinez-Leal
Rafael
R
Rössler
Wulf
W
Salize
Hans
H
Björkman
Tommy
T
Torres-Gonzales
Francisco
F
Wright
Donna J
DJ
Priebe
Stefan
S
D000328:Adult; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
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