SNASA research version
Developed by
Dr L. Kroll, Ms A. Woodham, Ms J. Rothwell, Dr S. Bailey, Dr C. Tobias, Professor R. Harrington*, Dr. M. Marshall, Austin Lockwood.
The Forensic Adolescent Unit, Mental Health Services of Salford, Prestwich Hospital,
Bury New Road, Manchester,:M25 3BL
Telephone No, 0161 773 9121 Ext. 3668
Fax No, 0161 798 5818
*The University of Manchester; Child Psychiatry, Royal Manchester Children's Hospital,
Hospital Road, Pendlebury, Manchester. M27 4HA
Telephone No, 0161 794 4694 Ext. 2401
Fax No, 0161 728 2294
Software
The software was developed in collaboration with the authors detailed below. There was a version 6, which is written in visual basic 6 and generates an Microsoft access7 database which can then be interrogated and exported to Excel or SPSS. Version 7 is available on CDRom and on the internet, and is an SQL database. Data can be exported in CSV format from this database.
The software is available from Austin Lockwood and Max Marshall
Academic unit, Community Psychiatry
Royal Preston Hospital
Sharoe Green Lane
Fullwood
Preston
PR2 4HT
01772-710477
The Salford Needs Assessment Schedule for Adolescents (S.NASA)
This research instrument assesses the needs of adolescents with chronic or complex problems. The adolescents may be involved with various agencies such as social services, the criminal justice system, psychiatric or forensic psychiatric services. The method of assessing needs is divided into three stages.
Stage one: Interviews.
The interviews of client and carer gather information on:-
A.) severity of 19 problem areas of functioning (e.g psychiatric, social, educational, housing, financial)..
B.) The young person’s co-operation (motivation) for help with their problems.
C.) the levels of stress to the carers resulting from each of the problem areas.
D.) the interventions offered to deal with specific problem areas.
Stage two: Cardinal problem definition.
An algorithm in software or manual format processes A, B and C for each of the 19 problem areas, leading to whether the problem area is defined as significant (cardinal)..
Stage three: Need status definition.
For each cardinal problem area, a research clinician then considers whether suitable interventions have been offered to treat or alleviate the cardinal problem. The software programme assists the research clinician in making these decisions. The possible final need status for each significant problem generated in stage 2 are:
No cardinal problem=No need
Cardinal problem + all interventions offered or inappropriate =PDI Persistent despite intervention
Cardinal problem + any intervention not offered=Need
Cardinal problem + any intervention suspended=Suspended (assessment phase)
Cardinal problem + any intervention refused = Need (applies to certain areas only)
Salford Adolescent Forensic Inventory of Needs
The interview (stage one) takes about an hour to complete for client and carer. Data entry and preparation for rating needs takes about ½ and hour.
Rating of needs by the research clinician takes a variable length of time depending on the number of cardinal problems generated in stage one and two of the process. Once familiar with the software programme and method, a case can be rated in 10 to 20 minutes.
Training is required for the interviews and clinical ratings of need.
The instrument is designed for use by researchers form psychological, social and educational and forensic backgrounds. The data collected can by analysed in a variety of ways. It does not generate categorical psychiatric diagnoses directly but can do so if used alongside a standard investigator based interview schedule such as the K SADS.