Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-26T20:56:10.217Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Measuring the need for psychiatric treatment in the general population: the community version of the MRC Needs for Care Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

P. Bebbington*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University College London and Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London; and Centre de recherche, Hospital Louis-H. Lafontaine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
C. R. Brewin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University College London and Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London; and Centre de recherche, Hospital Louis-H. Lafontaine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
L. Marsden
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University College London and Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London; and Centre de recherche, Hospital Louis-H. Lafontaine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
A. Lesage
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University College London and Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London; and Centre de recherche, Hospital Louis-H. Lafontaine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor Paul Bebbington, Department of Psychiatry, University College London Medical School, Wolfson Building, Riding House Street, London WC1N 8AA.

Synopsis

The community version of the MRC Needs for Care Assessment Schedule (NFCAS-C) is a new instrument designed for the psychiatric conditions seen in general populations. Its principles are based on the original Needs for Care Assessment, although that was developed for the very different population of those with long-standing mental illness (Brewin et al. 1987). The NFCAS-C is designed to reproduce, in an itemized and systematic manner, the functioning of well-organized primary care and psychiatric services. It is primarily intended for research purposes, in particular, the comparison of treatment needs and services in different populations. In this paper we describe the problems of assessing the need for psychiatric care in general populations and the rationale and development of the instrument, while in its companion we present the results of a reliability study (Lesage et al. 1995).

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edn – Revised. American Psychiatric Association: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Bebbington, P. E. (1990). Population surveys of psychiatric disorder and the need for treatment. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 25, 3340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradshaw, J. (1972). A taxonomy of social need. In Problems and Progress in Medical Care, Seventh Series (ed McLachlan, G.), pp. 7192. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Brewin, C. R. & Wing, J. K. (1993). The MRC Needs for Care Assessment progress and controversies. Psychological Medicine 23, 837841.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brewin, C. R., Wing, J. K., Mangen, S. P., Brugha, T. S. & MacCarthy, B. (1987). Principles and practice of measuring need in the long-term mentally ill: the MRC Needs for Care Assessment. Psychological Medicine 17, 971982.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brewin, C. R., Bebbington, P. E. & Lesage, A. D. (1994). Instruction Manual for the MRC Needs for Care Assessment: Community Version. Unpublished document. MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. O. (1978). Social Origins of Depression. Tavistock: London.Google ScholarPubMed
Dohrenwend, B. P. & Dohrenwend, B. S. (1982). Perspectives on the past and future of psychiatric epidemiology. American Journal of Public Health 72, 12711279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. P. & Hillier, V. F. (1979). A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine 9, 139145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hurry, J. & Sturt, E. (1981). Social performance in a population sample: relation to psychiatric symptoms. In What is a Case? The Problem of Definition in Psychiatric Community Surveys (ed. Wing, J. K., Bebbington, P. E. and Robins, L.), pp. 202213. Grant MacIntyre: London.Google Scholar
Hurry, J., Sturt, E., Bebbington, P. & Tennant, C. (1983). Sociodemographic associations with social disablement in a community sample. Social Psychiatry 18, 113121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehtinen, V., Joukamaa, M., Jyrkinen, E., Lahtela, K., Raitasalo, R., Maatela, J. & Aromaa, A. (1990). Need for mental health services of the adult population in Finland: results from the Mini Finland Health Survey. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 81, 426431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lesage, A., Fournier, L., Cyr, M., Toupin, J., Fabian, J., Gaudette, G., Vanier, C., Bebbington, P. E. & Brewin, C. (1996). The reliability of the Community Version of the Needs for Care Assessment. Psychological Medicine 26, 237243.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McConnell, P., McClelland, R., Gillespie, K., Bebbington, P. E. & Houghton, S. (1996). The Derry Survey. Needs for psychiatric care in Northern Ireland's second city.Google Scholar
Quality Assurance Project (1982). A methodology for preparing ‘ideal’ treatment outlines in psychiatry. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 16, 153158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quality Assurance Project (1985). Treatment outlines for the management of anxiety states. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 19, 138151.Google Scholar
Robins, L. N., Helzer, J. E., Orvaschel, H., Anthony, J. C., Blazer, D. G., Burnham, A. & Burke, J. D. (1985). The Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Epidemiologic Field Methods in Psychiatry. The NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program. Academic Press: Orlando, FL.Google Scholar
Shapiro, S., Skinner, E. A., Kramer, M., Steinwachs, D. M. & Regier, D. A. (1985). Measuring need for mental health services in a general population. Medical Care 23, 10331043.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, M. M. & Paykell, E. S. (1974). The Depressed Woman: A Study of Social Relations. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974). The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Mann, S. A., Leff, J. P. & Nixon, J. M. (1978). The concept of a case in psychiatric population surveys. Psychological Medicine 8, 203218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K., Babor, T., Brugha, R., Burke, J., Cooper, J. E., Giel, R., Jablensky, A., Regier, D. & Sartorius, N. (1990). SCAN: schedules for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry. Archives of General Psychiatry 47, 589593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (1992). SCAN Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry. WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar