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

Sarah Davenport is a consultant psychiatrist in rehabilitation, working in a women’s secure service in Preston (Guild Lodge, Guild Park, Whittingham, Preston PR3 2AZ, UK. E-mail: SarahDvnpt{at}aol.com). She was the first Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ new Faculty of Rehabilitation and Social Psychiatry and has coedited and authored chapters for Enabling Recovery: The Principles and Practice of Rehabilitation Psychiatry (eds G. Roberts, S. Davenport, F. Holloway, et al), due to be published by Gaskell in 2006.

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.