Background: There exists no instrument specifically designed to measure comprehensively the needs of older people with mental disorders.
Aim: To develop such an instrument which would take account of patients', staff and careers' views on needs.
Method: Following an extensive development process, the assessment instrument was subjected to a test-retest and interrater reliability study, while aspects of validity were addressed both during development and with data provided by sites in the UK, Sweden and the USA.
Results: The Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE) comprises 24 items (plus two items for career needs), and records staff, career and patient views. It has good content, construct and consensual validity. It also demonstrates appropriate criterion validity. Reliability is generally very high: kappa > 0.85 for all staff ratings of interrater reliability. Correlations of interrater and test-retest reliability of total numbers of needs identified by staff were 0.99 and 0.93, respectively.
Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the CANE seem to be highly acceptable. It was easily used by a wide range of professionals without formal training.