ABSTRACT
The needs of frail elderly people are usually multifaceted and can be quite complex. This complexity can make the process of assessment a challenging one, requiring direct input from the user and carer, as well as the care manager. However, when care managers involve both users and carers in the assessment process, inconsistency of views can arise. In order to obtain as objective a picture as possible during assessment, it is helpful to be able to understand the different types of bias which can be introduced by users, carers and their care managers in their judgements of needs and the services required. ECCEP has proved a valuable source for investigating such bias. The user, carer and care manager interviews included a wide range of questions on different aspects of need and on informal and formal resource inputs. Sometimes a similar question was asked on more than one interview so that a response was obtained from more than one perspective. This approach resulted in a number of interesting differences in the assessments of needs and resources being identified.
