Standard assessment scales for elderly people. Recommendations of the Royal College of Physicians of London and the British Geriatrics Society.

Sir,-In 1989 the Research Unit of the Royal College of Physicians initiated a workshop to consider scales that could be recommended for the assessment of elderly people in geriatric medicine services.At the outset, the main motive behind this initiative was to provide the tools for part of a minimum dataset in geriatric medicine.The workshop was convened in association with the British Geriatrics Society and included par- ticipants drawn from associated professions.At the workshops, precirculated expert papers were presented briefly and discussed in detail.Topics included the individual assessment dom- ains, the science of assessment, the interface with primary care, and the ethics of assessment.The assessment domains that were considered com- prised activities of daily living, communication, mood, cognitive function, social status, and quality of life.Between the workshops, each domain was the subject of consideration in much greater detail by smaller working groups drawn from among workshop participants.The background papers, minutes of workshop discussions, results of the deliberations of the small working groups, and other miscellaneous comments were incorporated into a report which was published this year.'