Does the HoNOS 65+ meet the criteria for a clinical outcome indicator for mental health services for older people?

Background A clinical indicator should demonstrate clinically meaningful change, be relevant, allow comparisons between services, be acceptable to clinicians, and have acceptable validity, reliability and sensitivity to change. The HoNOS 65+ has been suggested as a clinical outcome indicator. The sensitivity to change of the HoNOS 65+ is not known. Methods This is a prospective study using routine clinical data. A pilot cohort ( n  = 42) was used to measure the concurrent validity of the HoNOS 65+ with the Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS‐15) and Brief Agitation Rating Scale (BARS). The main cohort of 245 consecutive referrals to a community mental health service for older adults was used to assess sensitivity to change against the CIBIC+. Results The HoNOS 65+ was acceptable to case managers, most HoNOS 65+ items had excellent interrater reliability and the HoNOS 65+ had good concurrent validity. Changes in the HoNOS 65+ scores between assessment and discharge had a moderate, but significant correlation with CIBIC+ scores. Conclusion The HoNOS 65+ meets the criteria for a clinical outcome indicator for community mental health services for older people. The HoNOS 65+ is sensitive to change. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.