This paper reports the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in a cohort of elderly new admissions to nursing and residential homes. Three hundred and eight people aged over 65 were assessed within two weeks of admission to 30 nursing or residential homes in north-west England, using screening measures of cognitive impairment, depression and dependency. Population 'casemix' data were collected from homes. Almost two-thirds of the cohort, and 61% of those in residential, as opposed to nursing, homes showed clinically significant cognitive impairment. Just under 45% were identified as depression 'cases'. More respondents in the lower of two social class categories were found in both cognitively impaired and depressed groups. The high level of psychiatric morbidity in this new admission cohort raises questions about the availability of specialist expertise for this population, for both treatment and pre-admission assessment.