The Northern Ireland Single Assessment Tool (NISAT) is intended to collect information needed for a comprehensive, person-centred assessment of an older person. The core assessment includes eight domains that cover all aspects of an older person's life: mental health, communication and sensory functioning, personal care and daily tasks, mobility and movement, awareness and decision-making, housing and living arrangements, employment, finance, and leisure, and physical health and medication.

The SAT assessment methods concentrate on the older person's abilities and strengths rather than their disabilities. The standardised approach assists the assessor in focusing on the older person as the 'expert' on his or her own life, and it seeks to capture the older person's future goals and aspirations. Furthermore, the tool captures the viewpoint of others involved in the care of the elderly person.

In older people's services, NISAT has been implemented regionally across multidisciplinary teams (nurses, social workers, cooperating health professionals) in all five Health and Social Care Trusts. Regionally, 47% of Integrated Teams in Older People's Services actively use NISAT. The project's current focus is: ensuring full integration with other regional systems (e.g., community information systems, electronic care records); easing the transition from a stand-alone tool to the electronic assessment recording process and becoming an integral part of the technological software for delivering integrated care.

In general, the goal is to assess the health and social care needs of older people and adults in areas such as physical and sensory disability, dementia, and palliative care; Assist staff in using the tool and eventually deliver a single assessment process; Assess needs comprehensively using a multidisciplinary process and a person-centred approach; Improve users' service experience; Foster integrated and collaborative working between professionals