title: Patients' Needs for Care in Public Mental Health: Unity and Diversity of Self-Assessed Needs for Care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Needs assessment is recognized to be a key element of mental health care. Patients tend to present heterogeneous profiles of needs. However, there is no consensus in previous research about how patients' needs are organized. This study investigates both general and specific dimensions of patients' needs for care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients' needs were assessed with ELADEB, an 18-domain self-report scale. The use of a self-assessment scale represents a unique way of obtaining patients' perceptions. A patient-centered psychiatric practice facilitates empowerment as it is based on the patients' personal motivations, needs, and wants. Four seventy-one patients' profiles were analyzed through exploratory factor analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A four-factor bifactor model, including one general factor and three specific factors of needs, was most adequate. Specific factors were (a) "finances" and "administrative tasks"; (b) "transports," "public places," "self-care," "housework," and "food"; and (c) "family," "children," "intimate relationships," and "friendship."
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As revealed by the general factor, patients expressing urgent needs in some domains are also more susceptible to report urgent needs in several other domains. This general factor relates to high versus low utilizers of public mental healthcare. Patients also present specific needs in life domains, which are organized in three dimensions: management, functional disabilities, and familial and interpersonal relationships. These dimensions relate to the different types of existing social support described in the literature.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne , Lausanne , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bellier-Teichmann
authors.affiliation: Community Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) , Lausanne , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Golay
authors.affiliation: Community Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) , Lausanne , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonsack
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne , Lausanne , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Valentino
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pomini
keywords: ELADEB; care community; needs assessment; patient-centered practice; public mental healthcare; severe mental illness