Identifying older people in need using action research

,An ageing population has implications for community-based health promotion and disease prevention. There is concern about older people who do not fit into existing programmes and services yet need minimal support to maintain independence. A study was designed to develop approaches to gain access to this hard to r each population, assess needs and design and test interventions to integrat e them into the community. The study, informed by; theories of health promotion and social support, us ed action research methods. Participant observation documented in field not es, together with case notes and clinical assessments, provided a rich sour ce of qualitative and quantitative data. This article discusses the needs assessment. Over a 3-year period, public h ealth nurses linked with community groups in a predominantly francophone, u rban community to identify the target group. key characteristics of the target group included limitations with instrumen tal activities of daily living and low levels of social support combined wi th stressful life situations that challenged adaptation. Three patterns of inadequate support a ere identified.