[Migration background and care needs of patients with severe mental illness: an empirical exploration]

A substantial number of mental health care patients have a migration background. It is not clear whether they are given the right sort of care.

To investigate the differences in care needs between patients from western countries and non-western first- and second-generation migrants with severe mental illness (SMI).

In a cross-sectional study the Camberwell Assessment of Needs was filled in by 914 patients and also by their mental health professionals. We looked at differences in needs in general and specifically at care needs that were met and that were not met for patients of western origin and first-and second generation non-western migrants. These differences were analysed based on care areas: ‘activities of daily living’, ‘mental health’, ‘rehabilitation’ and ‘services’.

According to both patients and mental health workers, there were more needs for care with patients in the first and (to a lesser degree) the second generation of non-western migrants. The number of unmet needs is particularly higher for the domains 'mental health' and 'services' experienced by patients with a first generation migration background. Furthermore, for the first generation, mental health care workers mentioned more unmet needs in the rehabilitation domain. Further professionals proved to be uninformed significantly more often about the needs of patients with a migration background, that specifically does concern the items intimate relationships and sexuality.

Patients with SMI and a non-western migration history have more (unmet) needs for care than western patients with SMI. * BOTH FIRST AUTHORS.