Identifying and Meeting Clients' Needs in Six Community Mental Health Centers

Using an instrument called SNAPOR—Services Needed, Available, Planned, Offered, and Rendered—the authors investigated the mental health service needs of 643 clients in six community mental health centers and the adequacy with which they were met. The centers' intake workers completed the first part of the instrument, immediately after the initial interview, to identify which of 13 services clients needed and to estimate the availability of the services. Follow-up eight weeks later indicated which of the needed services had been offered and which were actually given. Individual sessions and medication were the needs most often identified. The percentages of needed services that were ultimately provided ranged from lows of 3 to 10 per cent, for various kinds of rehabilitation, to a high of 84 per cent, for 24-hour hospitalization.