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Further reliability and validity studies of a procedure to assess the needs for care of the chronically mentally ill

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

I. Van Haaster*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Research Centre, Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital, Montreal; and Department of Psycho-education, University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
A. D. Lesage
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Research Centre, Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital, Montreal; and Department of Psycho-education, University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
M. Cyr
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Research Centre, Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital, Montreal; and Department of Psycho-education, University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
J. Toupin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Research Centre, Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital, Montreal; and Department of Psycho-education, University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Ian van Haaster, Centre de recherche, Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine, 7331 rue Hochelaga, Montréal, Canada HIN 3V2.

Synopsis

The Needs for Care Assessment Schedule (NFCAS; Brewin et al. 1987) is an itemized and systematic procedure that aims to evaluate the needs for care of long-term mentally ill patients. The present study pursues reliability and validity related issues with the NFCAS in a different cultural context applying the procedure to 98 severely mentally ill patients belonging to different patient groups: short-term, long-term, in-patient and out-patient.

Inter-rater reliability was found to be excellent. The results suggest that a clinician with little practical experience and adequate training may effectively use the procedure. The assessment of clinical relevance suggested that the procedure is both applicable and pertinent to all the patients in the study. Additional guidelines were developed for its use with long-term in-patients.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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