People with mental illness often have complex social problems. Up to now, there has been no systematised/standardised recording of social assistance needs in acute psychiatric care. One reason for this is the lack of adequate instruments and the increasing workload. The review analyses established needs assessment instruments with regard to their suitability for addressing the question. It becomes clear that these instruments are insufficiently suitable for a structured assessment of the need for psychosocial support. This results in the need for the development of a short and standardised instrument for the assessment of psychosocial support needs, which can be used as part of multiprofessional diagnostics within psychiatric care.