The APS Tools Inventory: Great to Add to Your Toolbelt!
 

By Kendra Kuehn, NAPSA

March 2026

In January 2026, the Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) Office of Elder Justice and Adult Protective Services released the Adult Protective Services (APS) Tools Inventory. The APS Tools Inventory is a searchable database with 92 screening and assessment tools, with extensive descriptions on administration, testing, and validation for each tool. Users can search for tools designed to screen and assess adult maltreatment, evaluate a client’s risk of maltreatment, screen decisional capabilities, and measure a client’s functional status. In the National Process Evaluation of the Adult Protective Services System a tool is described as “more than simply a form to collect information; it is a structured document or process designed to assist the worker with decision-making at critical case junctures, such as evaluation of client cognitive capacity or level of risk.” But why is such a collection important and who can benefit from it? 

Why is this needed?

The 2024 ACL APS Final Rule  provides a minimum baseline for APS programs, including efforts at standardization and consistency in policies and tools (45 CFR § 1324.403). In the Final Rule, the APS response section covers the full cycle of a case, from screening and triage to investigation and service planning. It requires standardized and systemic policies and procedures on APS response, including tools and decision-making protocols around initial screening and referral, determining needs of the adult, and determining safety and risk factors. Because the Final Rule is a minimum standard, no specific tools or protocols are required, and the Tools Inventory can help inform these decisions. 

Prior to the Final Rule, the 2020 ACL National Voluntary Consensus Guidelines for State Adult Protective Services Systems also noted that effective tools can help standardize the decision-making process from intake through service provision. Tools can support an effective response, create standardization, and protect the client, caseworker, and program from unfounded or biased decisions.

The 2020 ACL APS Research Agenda highlights the importance of systematic tools and assessments to thoroughly collect and evaluate information to inform APS processes and decisions. While a caseworker’s professional judgment and expertise significantly inform responses, tools can support “optimal decisions in an environment of high caseloads and increasingly complex case management.” 

These tools and assessments assist and inform APS staff; the Voluntary Consensus Guidelines emphasize that tools should not prevent staff from using their professional judgment and creative thinking to engage in new ways to work with APS clients. 
 

Tools and assessments provide support for APS work. But ACL’s 2023 National Process Evaluation of the Adult Protective Services System found that not all APS programs use standardized tools, and the areas they are used for vary between programs.

Implementing tools does not just help meet federal regulations; their use can benefit programs by providing comprehensive data, decision-making consistency, and greater equity and protections for all involved. Establishing these practices can also assist in filling gaps for new workers and ensuring expertise goes beyond the classroom. Well-designed and effective tools can help translate research and experience into useful practice and processes. The Tools Inventory can help APS programs determine the most useful support for screening and assessment during APS involvement.

Who is this for?

The Tools Inventory may help APS programs with determining what is needed to meet the previously discussed regulations and guidelines to support investigations. It can also support researchers and APS partners. The summaries will help program leadership and supervisors quickly assess how a tool might be beneficial to their program by narrowing down the populations the tool is built for, the research behind a tool, and avoiding unnecessary duplication or time spent on development of a program-specific tool.

The Tools Inventory database also supports and guides researchers working to improve the evidence base for screening and assessments used by APS programs. The descriptions provide clear and concise background to familiarize users with the tool. Four research-informed dimensions describe the level of evidence in current research for the tool. It is important to remember that a lower level of evidence does not necessarily mean a bad tool; it may just indicate that limited research is available. Exploring the database is for anyone looking to move the APS field forward and best support clients, whether through program implementation or research advancement.

What are all these categories?

When the why and the who are clear, it’s time to explore the Tools Inventory and its contents. The Tools Inventory database focuses on tools for screening and assessment of maltreatment, risk, decisional capacity, and functional status. While the search function can help narrow the results, the page for each tool gives a great amount of detail ranging from the time the tool takes to complete to the population the tool is intended to serve, and more. The identified tool itself is not part of the database, but the description includes links and contact information for APS programs to further explore tool usage. 

In addition to the basic description and information, the database includes supplemental materials, although this information is specifically aimed at the research community. Some key terms used in those materials are discussed below to help APS better understand how they are applied to the tools. The overall “Level of Evidence” ranges from well supported/supported at the highest level to promising/emerging at the mid-range, and at the lowest level, not yet established. A lower level of evidence does not necessarily mean a tool is of poor quality; it may mean that the tool is new in its development and does not have the level of research for a higher level. 

Level of evidence is based on four dimensions: usefulness, internal consistency and reliability, content validity, and criterion validity. These four dimensions inform the quality of the tool and assess if the tool can identify those who do or do not have a condition, actually measures what it is designed to measure, addresses all relevant parts of the target concept, and reliably produces consistent results. In each of these dimensions, the description includes recommendations for improving the evidence base for researchers looking to move the field forward. 

Learn more about past research on APS tools in the APS Technical Assistance Resource Center brief, Overview of Use of Tools in APS Practice, and webinar, An Introduction to the Adult Maltreatment Screening and Assessment Tools Inventory.

Have further questions or feedback on the new Adult Protective Services (APS) Tools Inventory? Contact the ACL Elder Justice Consumer Response at contactelderjustice@acl.hhs.gov. 
 

The APS Blog is updated regularly with posts from contributing authors and new publications from the APS TARC.

How did we do? Take our quick customer satisfaction survey to give us feedback.