The building blocks of a quality day treatment program: the needs assessment.

This paper is the first in a series of papers which discuss the many necessary ingredients that combine to produce a quality day treatment program. The theme of this article is the assessment of market needs. Included are (1) an introduction to the concepts of needs, (2) a discussion of the movement from need to change in society, (3) an examination of the process of quantifying needs, and (4) a brief description of several different types of needs assessments. The conclusion provides a description of each salient point and indicates its use in day treatment program development.