The concept of need, discussed from many points of view, remains necessary to the planning of health services. The author tries to define psychiatric needs in a clinical perspective, limiting his approach to secondary and tertiary prevention. The critical points supporting the clinical decision permit the choice of fundamental criteria which allow one to identify and describe the psychiatric needs of a given population. Using this methodology a typology of those needs is formulated in a way which is acceptable in a multidisciplinary approach.
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