Abstract
The comprehensive assessment of patients with severe mental health problems includes the evaluation of needs, as this informs service planning, and levels of unmet need have been found to be associated with lower subjective quality of life. The Camberwell Assessment of Need is the most widely used instrument for this purpose. We report the development and evaluation of a new, patient-rated, short form (CANSAS-P). The CANSAS-P exhibited comparable detection of needs with its predecessor, better identification of domains that are problematic for patients to respond to, good test-retest reliability, especially for unmet needs, and generally positive evaluations by patients. We recommend the CANSAS-P as the needs assessment measure of choice for completion by patients.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andresen, R., Caputi, P., & Oades, L. G. (2000). Interrater reliability of the Camberwell Assessment of Need Short Appraisal Schedule. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 34, 856–861
Arvidsson, H. (2003). Met and unmet needs of severely mentally ill persons. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 38, 373–379
Eisen, S. V. (1996). Behavior and symptom identification scale (BASIS-32). In L. I. Sederer & B. Dickey (Eds.), Outcomes assessment in clinical practice. Williams & Wilkins
Evans, S., Greenhalgh, J., & Connelly, J. (2000). Selecting a mental health needs assessment scale: guidance on the critical appraisal of standardized measures. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 6(4), 379–393
Hansson, L., Vinding, H. R., Mackeprang, T., Sourander, A., Werdelin, G., Bengtsson-Tops, A., et al. (2001). Comparison of key worker and patient assessment of needs in schizophrenic patients living in the community: A Nordic multicentre study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 103, 45–51
Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159–174
Lasalvia, A., Ruggeri, M., Mazzi, M. A., & Dall’Agnola, R. B. (2000). The perception of needs for care in staff and patients in community-based mental health services. The South-Verona Outcome Project 3. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 102, 366–375
Macpherson, R., Varah, M., Summerfield, L., & Slade, M. (2003). Staff and patient assessments of need in an epidemiologically representative sample of patients with psychosis. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 38(11), 662–667
Middleton, H. C., Regueira, M. F., & Bramley, M. (1996). Formal needs assessment in practice: An application of the MRC Needs for Psychiatric Care Assessment Schedule. Journal of Mental Health, 5(1), 65–75
Ochoa, S., Haro, J. M., Autonell, J., Pendas, A., Teba, F., Marquez, M., et al. (2003). Met and unmet needs of schizophrenia patients in a Spanish sample. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 29(2), 201–210
Phelan, M., Slade, M., Thornicroft, G., Dunn, G., Holloway, F., Wykes, T., et al. (1995). The Camberwell Assessment of Need: The validity and reliability of an instrument to assess the needs of people with severe mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 589–595
Ruggeri, M., Leese, M., Slade, M., Bonizzato, P., Fontecedro, L., & Tansella, M. (2004). Demographic, clinical, social and service variables associated with higher needs for care in community psychiatric service patients. The South Verona Outcome Project 8. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 39, 60–68
Schnapp, W. B., Hickey, J. S., & Bayles, S. (2006). The mental health needs council of Harris county: A case report on community collaboration and adult mental illness prevalence assessment and service need analysis. Adminstration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 33(4), 512–516
Simons, L., & Petsch, A. (2002). Needs assessment and discharge: A Scottish perspective. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 9, 435–445
Slade, M., Gillard, M., Kuipers, E., Leese, M., & Thornicroft, G. (2004). The impact of mental health on the quality of life: Are unmet needs the mediator? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 110(S421), 57
Slade, M., Leese, M., Cahill, S., Thornicroft, G., & Kuipers, E. (2005). Patient-rated mental health needs and quality of life improvement. British Journal of Psychiatry, 187, 256–261
Slade, M., Leese, M., Gillard, M., Kuipers, E., & Thornicroft, G. (2006). Pre-morbid IQ and response to routine outcome assessment. Psychological Medicine, 36, 1183–1191
Slade, M., Leese, M., Ruggeri, M., Kuipers, E., Tansella, M., & Thornicroft, G. (2004). Does meeting needs improve quality of life? Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 73, 183–189
Slade, M., McCrone, P., Kuipers, E., Leese, M., Cahill, S., Parabiaghi, A., et al. (2006). Use of standardised outcome measures in adult mental health services: Randomised controlled trial. British Journal of Psychiatry, 189, 330–336
Slade, M., Phelan, G., Thornicroft, G., & Parkman, S. (1996). The Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN): Comparison of assessments by staff and patients of the needs of the severely mentally ill. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 31, 109–113
Slade, M., Phelan, M., & Thornicroft, G. (1998). A comparison of needs assessed by staff and by an epidemiologically representative sample of patients with psychosis. Psychological Medicine, 28, 543–550
Sowers, W. (2005). Transforming systems of care: The American Association of Community Psychiatrists guidelines for recovery oriented services. Community Mental Health Journal, 41(6), 757–774
Trauer, T., & Tobias, G. (2004). The Camberwell Assessment of Need and Behaviour and Symptom Identification Scale as routine outcome measures in a psychiatric disability support service. Community Mental Health Journal, 40(3), 211–221
Wiersma, D. (2006). Needs of people with severe mental illness Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Supplementum, 113(Supplementum 429), 115–119
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Tom Trauer, Glen Tobias, and Mike Slade are affiliated with Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Trauer, T., Tobias, G. & Slade, M. Development and Evaluation of a Patient-rated Version Of the Camberwell Assessment of Need Short Appraisal Schedule (CANSAS-P). Community Ment Health J 44, 113–124 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-007-9101-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-007-9101-z