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Access to health care, particularly for children, remains a topic of great importance to policy makers in the United States. Recent attention focuses primarily on the enactment and subsequent expansions of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (Kenney, Ullman & Weil, 2000). Though the legislation affects all qualifying low-income children, the unique service needs of children with disabilities justify a closer look at the relationship between health insurance, income, and needs amongst children with disabilities. This analysis seeks to answer the following questions. To what extent do children with disabilities need various supportive health services? Does this need vary across type of disability or income level? Do children with health insurance, either public or private, have fewer unmet needs than children without health insurance? Answers to these questions will assist policy makers when determining who should be targeted to receive additional assistance in the future as well as evaluate the effectiveness of current mechanisms in delivering supportive health services to children with disabilities.

The main objective of the study is to investigate unmet needs of Black African and Caribbean Heritage (BAH) patients with and without a concurrent diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD).

A total of 79 participants were recruited from ten psychiatric inpatient wards across two hospital sites in South London. Personality disorder was assessed using the SCID‐II for DSM‐IV, the prevalence of unmet needs was assessed by The Camberwell Assessment of Need Short Assessment Schedule and substance misuse problems measured using well validated drug and alcohol use disorder identification tools.

The presence of a concurrent ASPD was independently associated with a greater number of unmet needs. ASPD was associated with lower qualifications and a greater risk of homelessness and substance misuse. Unmet need was associated with lower qualifications and substance misuse. In a stepwise linear regression model alcohol dependence and drug misuse were the most significant predictors of unmet need.

Further research is required to identify the reasons why these needs are not being met and establish reasons for these patients' high‐dropout rates from treatment.

The present findings suggest BAH psychiatric inpatients with ASPD are at greater risk of alcohol dependence and drug misuse and report a greater number of unmet needs thus requiring a greater volume of services; however, current services are not meeting these needs. Mental health teams should ensure thorough needs assessment procedures are incorporated into general psychiatric service practice ensuring effective treatment packages are tailored to these patients needs.

The research identifies a previously under‐researched sub‐group of psychiatric inpatients with a high proportion of unmet health and social needs and suggests further research to develop service improvements supporting their management.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the prevalence and determinants of unmet need with a special focus on religious barrier towards the use of contraception among Muslim women in India. The study also addresses their future intention to use family planning method.

Data from the latest round of District Level Household and Facility Survey (DLHS-3) in India is used. A multi-stage stratified probability proportion to size sampling design was adopted. The present analysis is based on 70,016 currently married Muslim women across the country.

The prevalence of total unmet need is the highest in Bihar (48.5 per cent), which is two times higher than the national level (27.6 per cent). About 9 per cent Muslim women in India do not use contraception due to religious opposition. There is considerable gap in the future intention to use family planning method between Muslim (9.2 per cent) and non-Muslim (19.6 per cent) women particularly for limiting birth. The logistic regression analysis shows non-Muslim women are significantly more likely (OR=1.540, p<0.001) to have the intention to use family planning method in the future than Muslim women.

Men are not included to explore the differences in the perception of men and women towards family planning. Interventions targeting men and aiming at overcoming cultural barriers to using family planning method are equally imperative. Couple's knowledge, attitude and perception towards acceptance of family planning methods need to be addressed simultaneously by interviewing the couples separately.

Public-private collaboration to promote family planning programme and providing services in the high prevalence (unmet need) states is required. Support from the religious leaders to overcome the cultural barriers towards the use of family planning is also needed.

This is the first ever effort to address the existing unmet need for family planning among Muslim women in India, which is an important determinant of high fertility among Muslim women.

In Spring 2015, Texas experienced record-breaking floods, causing deaths, injuries, and widespread property and infrastructure damage. However, little is known about those who encountered access barriers to disaster support in Texas. The purpose of this paper is to examine the unmet disaster-related needs from 2-1-1 calls during evacuation, flooding, and early recovery phases.

The 2-1-1 Texas Information and Referral Network’s caller database was used to identify real time, non-emergency, unmet disaster-related caller needs longitudinally. The two-month study period included a baseline week before flashflood (05/01/2015) into early recovery (06/30/2015). Caller unmet needs were categorized and graphed by type daily throughout the study period.

Of the 4,880 disaster-related 2-1-1 calls from Texas’ 254 counties, 1,183 callers needed housing help, compared to 442 utilities, 409 food and 109 medically related assistance. Total calls quickly peaked at 405 calls/day during Memorial Day weekend when Greater Houston flooded. Despite total calls decreasing gradually during recovery, they remained four times higher than baseline. Unmet needs varied by type, especially during early recovery. Housing, food, and medical unmet needs surged when Houston flooded. Although medical calls were lowest volume than other basic needs, demand for medical assistance had a higher threshold throughout early recovery.

Examination of unmet needs over disaster phases identified longitudinal patterns of demand and effectiveness of disaster management efforts.

Using real-time 2-1-1 data to monitor types of unmet demand is valuable to tailor timely and effective disaster support, reduce access barriers, and allocate disaster support services and supplies to the vulnerable communities.

This secondary data analysis explores the unmet needs of adolescents experiencing maternal cancer in Ireland. Research has shown that one of the challenges adolescents deal with at the time of maternal cancer is having unmet needs that can impact negatively on their experience and their ability to cope through this difficult challenge.

Fifteen adolescents completed qualitative interviews as part of a larger study that explored the experience of adolescent adjustment to maternal cancer. The transcripts of these original interviews were analysed using a secondary content analysis underpinned by the categories included in the Offspring Cancer Needs Instrument (Patterson et al., 2013).

The findings of this study suggest a necessity to individually explore the unmet needs of adolescents as these were not uniform even within a small sample of 15 adolescents. Unmet needs change and evolve over time as does maternal illness. Adolescents themselves identified the need for more education in the general public and in clinical practitioners on how to respond appropriately to their needs. It is crucial that adolescent's needs and emotions are validated at the time as part of the support provided for them.

This study provides important recommendations for practice and policy on how to provide tailored supports for adolescent who experience cancer in their families as currently there is a lack of effective and evidence-based targeted supports for this specific age group.

This study examined access to and quality of supports for families of adolescents with disabilities.

An online survey was completed by family members of transition-aged young adults who had participated in parent training sessions on topics related to transitions to adulthood. Survey responses came from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 4 U.S. territories.

More than one-third of families reported unmet information needs related to areas such as employment, housing, preparing for adult relationships, and preparing others to support the family members with disabilities. Families of younger transition-aged youth, youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder or other disabilities, and families with lower household incomes reported more unmet needs. The overall quality of services families reported receiving was 2.19 on a 4-point scale of 1 to 4. Parents reported needing more information and quality of supports related to the transition of youth from school to adulthood.

Given the scope of unmet needs, ongoing collaboration between schools, agencies, organizations, and other entities that serve families is critical. While schools play a key role in supporting the transition process, other organizations also have a role.

The results from this survey demonstrate that the need for support is not limited to youth with disabilities, but that family members also have information and support needs related to their roles as caregivers in the transition process.

This survey provides information about unmet needs and current services from a national sample that includes often underserved populations and includes sufficient numbers of respondents to allow comparisons between families, based on the type of disability their family member had.

Using Andersen’s (1968) behavioral model of health services use as a guiding conceptual framework, this study examined how receipt of family-centered care relates to the perceived family challenges for families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Data from the 2009–2010 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN) were analyzed for 812 parents of children with ASD.

Multiple regression analyses provided substantive statistical evidence that a child’s race, the adequacy of a family’s insurance, and the stability of child’s health care needs significantly contributed to predicting his or her receipt of family-centered care. Further results suggested a relationship between receipt of family-centered care and the perception of challenge for these families; families receiving family-centered care perceive fewer challenges and feel less unmet need for child health services.

Family-centered professionals provide critical voices in the development of policies and programs geared toward improving the health outcomes of children with ASD and their families.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of the information behaviours of prisoners, providing insight into their information needs and information-seeking preferences, and the factors influencing their behaviours; to inform education and rehabilitation programmes.

The paper is an in-depth qualitative study. The theoretical framework was provided via Chatman’s (1996) concepts of information poverty. Participants were adult male prisoners in a Scottish maximum security prison, and prison staff. Data collection method was semi-structured interviews.

Prisoners have a broad range of information needs, many sensitive and many unmet. Interpersonal information sources are predominantly used due to a combination of natural preference and restricted access to other information sources. Issues of stigma and trust influence information behaviours. Further issues include restrictive social norms, and disinformation to incite violence. A significant degree of risk is therefore inherent within interpersonal information interactions, fostering self-protective acts of secrecy and deception amongst prisoners. Unmet emotional needs appear particularly problematic.

The paper highlights the need for further research exploring issues of unmet emotional needs in prisoners; in particular, assistive methods of need recognition and support in the problematic context.

The paper identifies significant unmet information needs in prisoners that impact upon their ability to cope with incarceration, and prepare for successful release and reintegration.

The paper addresses an understudied group of significant societal concern and advances the understanding of information need in context, providing insight into unmet needs and issues of affect in the incarcerated small world context.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine geographic variations in utilization and need for mental health services. Data for this study were obtained from the 2002 National Survey of American Families. The total sample size was 23,327 adults of aged 18 years and older. Both logistic and linear regression were used to test the possibility of geographical variations. Disparities were found among the 13 U.S. states examined in this study. Results also showed that the percentage of African Americans, state mental health budgets, and mean length of stay in psychiatric hospitals in the state are important predictors of variations in mental health utilization and need variables. These findings suggest that although individual sociodemographic characteristics are important in examining mental health utilization, state characteristics (especially percentage of African Americans, state mental health laws, and mean length of stay in psychiatric hospitals) are also important predictors of variation in utilization of mental health services.

Evidence suggests supported living can improve functioning and reduce need. However, its lack of a clear definition has presented significant challenges to establishing a definitive evaluation of its efficacy. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a defined model of supported living using in terms of reductions made to aspects of clinical and social recovery.

A naturalistic, non-controlled assessment was conducting using using the Camberwell Assessment of Need Clinical Scale with a sample of adults with severe and enduring mental illness residing with a UK-based mental health company at 1 of 12 UK locations.

Analysis regarding preliminary outcomes relating to health and social need is presented with comparison between admission and six-months post-admission (N = 90). Additional analysis relating to outcomes at 12 months is also provided (N = 39). Significant outcomes are noted at both timepoints in terms of reducing unmet need and levels of formal and informal help given/required during tenancy.

The findings support that, even in the absence of clinical recovery, opportunities exist to make meaningful and valuable improvements to unmet need and functional independence, with implications for clinical practice in the context of supported living.

The findings provide encouraging early indications of the benefits of the model in making meaningful reductions to functional and psychological needs in individuals with severe and enduring mental illness.