Background. The assessment of intervention integrity is essential in psychotherapeutic intervention outcome research and psychotherapist training. There has been little attention given to it in mindfulness-based interventions research, training programs, and practice. Aims. To address this, the Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC) was developed. This article describes the MBI:TAC and its development and presents initial data on reliability and validity. Method. Sixteen assessors from three centers evaluated teaching integrity of 43 teachers using the MBI:TAC. Results. Internal consistency (α = .94) and interrater reliability (overall intraclass correlation coefficient = .81; range = .60-.81) were high. Face and content validity were established through the MBI:TAC development process. Data on construct validity were acceptable. Conclusions. Initial data indicate that the MBI:TAC is a reliable and valid tool. It can be used in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction/Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy outcome evaluation research, training and pragmatic practice settings, and in research to assess the impact of teaching integrity on participant outcome.

The NHS & Community Care Act 1990 heralded a new era in community care in the UK. Needs-led assessment and case management were to form the cornerstone of high quality care. Practitioners were challenged to alter their attitudes and practice to accommodate the needs-led approach. Previously they had assessed need to ascertain eligibility for statutory services, now they were required to identify "need" per se. The pivotal role given to assessment meant the success, or otherwise, of the reforms lay in part on the ability of practitioners to make this transition. However, to make needs-led assessment a reality, practitioners would have both to overcome conceptual barriers--need being an unclear concept, with no clear framework existing to assess need--and also to deal successfully with the conflicting requirement to ration services. In order to investigate whether the shift to needs-led practice had been possible, the opinions of social and healthcare practitioners providing services for older people in North Wales were sought through semi-structured interviews in 1994-1995 and 1998-1999. Supports and constraints to practice were also explored. Practitioners indicated that whilst they welcomed the needs-led philosophy, putting it into practice was difficult, if not impossible. The main constraints were a lack of resources (financial, service provision and staffing) and the conceptual difficulty of separating "need" from the "need for a particular service". Ever-tightening budgets and service eligibility criteria over the period of the study indicate that a shift of focus from assessment of need to rationing has taken place.

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This paper explores the findings from a recent study about the assessment and management of care for older people who may have a sensory impairment. Using qualitative research methods, the work focused on non‐specialist practitioners who are responsible for the assessment and management of care for older people and their carers. The findings are based upon the analysis of in‐depth interviews with non‐specialist practitioners, specialist workers and managers from statutory and voluntary sector agencies. Older people with a hearing impairment or a visual impairment are not a homogenous group of people with a single set of needs or service support networks. It is the existence of non‐specialist practitioners, carrying out the assessment and management of care for older people that draw together in one study the three areas of visual impairment, hearing impairment and dual impairment. The findings relate to practitioners' awareness of sensory impairment in their local community; how practitioners assess and manage care; access to services; staff training and development; and, information strategies. The interface between non‐specialists and practitioners with particular expertise in sensory impairment is also examined. The implications for policy and practice are identified.