Ensuring the community cares: Assessment and evaluation of social care needs in long-term mental illness

Abstract

Clinicians have been divided in their views on whether systematic needs assessment leads to an improvement in the outcome of care for people with chronic mental illness. Policy makers assume that assessment and evaluation will improve the clinical and cost-effectiveness of mental health services. Many of these assumptions are already embedded within mental health policy and practice. A decade of research has not resolved this tension. However, clinicians need to know about the options available to guide systematic assessment and evaluation of care. They can then make informed decisions about their use to promote effective care planning or as a tool to direct socially inclusive service development.