Within the framework of the WHO Coordinated Multi-Center Study on the Course and Outcome of Schizophrenia carried out in 20 countries a cohort of 63 patients coming from a circumscribed area in the northern part of Holland is being followed up about 15 years after their first life-time psychotic breakdown. They are among others assessed by the `Needs for Care Assessment (NCA)' for the chronically mentally ill according to the protocol described by Brewin a.o. (1987). In this paper the findings with regard to the met and unmet needs for care are reported, of 47 patients who had indeed significant psychiatric problems. One third of them received no (fully) adequate care (i.e. one or more unmet needs). The relevance of this method for evaluating mental health care, nationally as well as internationally, is discussed.