Agreement between staff and service users concerning the clientele's mental health needs: A Quebec study

Objectives: This article examines the differences found between clientele with severe mental health problems and their key health workers in terms of assessing service users' needs in 6 Quebec service areas. Method: We questioned 165 pairs of users and staff, using the Camberwell Assessment of Needs questionnaire. The profile of serious and overall problems encountered by clientele from each of the sites was compared. Results: The sites with the greatest degree of user-staff agreement in identifying problems were also the ones where users considered that local services best met their needs. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that, in needs assessment, major differences exist between the perceptions of users and their key workers in the various sites. These differences can be explained in part by users' individual characteristics, by types of needs, by local particularities, and by service use.