Day Care in an Inner City

Seven units providing psychiatric day care to residents of an inner-city area were surveyed. The extent to which the clinical and special problems of attenders were adequately managed by the services was measured using a 'needs-assessment' technique. Units differed in the proportion of clinical and social problems that were rated as 'unmet needs', although the extent of 'unmet need' was not clearly related to the morbidity of attenders at a unit or the available staffing.