ORIGINAL ARTICLE Adequacy of Help Received Among Individuals With Severe Mental Disorders Marie-Jose ´e Fleury • Guy Grenier • Jean-Marie Bamvita • Myra Piat • Jacques Tremblay Published online: 19 January 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract Using multiple linear regression analyses and a new assessment measure, this exploratory study identifies variables associated with help adequacy of 352 individuals with severe mental disorder. Help adequacy is higher with tobacco use, psychological distress domain, having a caregiver, help form services, being older, and lower with number of needs; accommodation, food, childcare and involvement in treatment decisions domains; number of suicide attempts, legal problems in previous year, and drugs problem. Results confirm the importance of a better collaboration with relatives, healthcare and social service providers to provide more adequate and satisfactory ser- vices for severe mental disorders individuals. Keywords Help adequacy Á Needs Á Assessment Á Severe mental disorders A majority of individuals with severe mental disorder currently live in the community and receive treatment from community-based services (Lamb and Bachrach 2001; Thornicroft and Tansella 2002). Accordingly, mental healthcare provisions have evolved from a more traditional approach based exclusively on psychiatric diagnoses and symptoms to an approach founded on the individual’s bio- psychosocial needs (Lasalvia et al. 2007). Thus, the current aim of mental healthcare is to reduce not only psychiatric symptoms but also social consequences of mental disorders (Middleboe et al. 2001). An evaluation of functioning, disability or clinical variables is insufficient when deciding what services a user requires because needs are only par- tially related to those variables (Ochoa et al. 2003). From an epidemiological perspective, needs assessment facili- tates planning, provision, and evaluation of required mental healthcare services (Macpherson et al. 2003), and deter- mines the extent of specialised services required by indi- viduals with more serious health needs (Lasalvia et al. 2000). Intervention should ideally be tailor-made to satisfy user needs (Scho ¨lzel-Dorenbos et al. 2010). Moreover, a strong agreement between user and professional percep- tions with respect to the number, and severity of needs, may facilitate therapeutic alliances, which can help to improve treatment outcomes (Lasalvia et al. 2007). Several instruments have been developed to evaluate the needs of individuals with severe mental disorders. The most widely used instrument for need assessment is the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN), which was developed at the London Institute of Psychiatry (Phelan et al. 1995). The CAN assesses participant needs in 22 areas. A need is considered met when there are either no or moderate problems due to the help received and unmet when there are serious problems regardless of whether help is received. Some studies that have used the CAN have M.-J. Fleury (&) Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, 6875 LaSalle Blvd., Montreal, Quebec H4H 1R3, Canada e-mail: flemar@douglas.mcgill.ca G. Grenier Á J.-M. Bamvita Á M. Piat Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, Quebec H4H 1R3, Canada e-mail: guy.grenier@douglas.mcgill.ca J.-M. Bamvita e-mail: jean-marie.bamvita@douglas.mcgill.ca M. Piat e-mail: myra.piat@douglas.mcgill.ca J. Tremblay Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Quebec H4H 1R3, Canada e-mail: jacques.tremblay@douglas.mcgill.ca 123 Adm Policy Ment Health (2014) 41:302–316 DOI 10.1007/s10488-013-0466-8