The main aim of the Care for Elderly People at Home project was to explore new ways to help elderly people at risk of failing to cope, to remain in their own homes. An important assumption underlying the approach of the project was that for elderly people in particular, health problems are intimately tied in with their social situation and needs cannot be simply categorised as `social' or `medical'. `Care coordinators' under the project gathered and exchanged information on services and resources, assessed the individual needs of elderly people and gathered information for research purposes both on the effect of services and their general availability and appropriateness. `Present state' variables describe the circumstances of `at risk' elderly people at home; `meetable needs' variables describe elderly people's unmet needs. Measurement Scales A Dependency Scale was derived from seventeen items from the`Present state' group of variables.