Meeting the needs of people with psychiatric disorders.

Evaluative research into the provision of psychiatric services to communities and individuals covers the whole spectrum of diagnosis, treatment and care, and the apparatus of policy-making, administration and management concerned in 'delivery'. The problems for research are described in terms of two central concepts--social disablement and need. Emphasis is placed on the importance of a needs assessment system, in spite of the methodological problems it poses. Examples are drawn chiefly from the UK National Health Service (NHS) because of the opportunities it provides for epidemiologically based research, but the issues raised are universal.