30+ Clinical Assessment Tools — Now Free for All Practitioners

What Changed

When we launched our first clinical calculators, the focus was on client self-report mental health assessments — the PHQ-9, GAD-7, DASS-21, K-10, and similar instruments that clients complete themselves. These remain the most-used tools in the library.

The library now includes two categories of instrument:

Client self-report assessments — questionnaires completed by the client, covering depression, anxiety, general distress, trauma, substance use readiness, personality, autism, and more. These include familiar instruments like the PHQ-9, GAD-7, DASS-21, K-10, CORE-10, PCL-5, and URICA.

Practitioner-completed instruments — tools designed for clinicians to score based on observation, examination, or clinical interview. These include delirium screening (4AT), early warning scores (NEWS2), psychiatric rating scales (BPRS, CGI, AIMS), and clinical withdrawal (CIWA-Ar).

Two Types of Tools, One Library

The tools page now separates instruments into two clear sections:

Patient and Client Assessments

These are the familiar self-report questionnaires. A client reads each question and selects their response. The tool calculates a total score and displays the severity interpretation based on published scoring guidelines. Examples include the PHQ-9 for depression screening, the GAD-7 for anxiety, the CORE-10 for general psychological distress, and the URICA for substance use readiness.

Client self-report tools are commonly used in clinical practice for initial screening, outcome measurement, and progress monitoring. Practitioners send these to clients via the assessment invitation system, or clients complete them in-session.

Practitioner Scoring Tools

These instruments are completed by the practitioner, not the client. The clinician observes, examines, or interviews the patient and then records their findings using the tool's structured scoring format.

Practitioner scoring tools are visually distinguished with an amber badge so there is no confusion about who completes the instrument. The clinical workflow is different — these tools are typically completed during or immediately after a clinical encounter, and the scores inform the practitioner's documentation.

Examples include the NEWS2 (where the practitioner enters vital signs and the tool calculates the early warning score), the 4AT (where the practitioner screens for delirium based on alertness, AMT-4, attention, and acute change), and the BPRS (where the practitioner rates psychiatric symptoms based on clinical interview).

What Every Tool Includes

Each tool in the library provides:

• Validated scoring based on the instrument's published guidelines — no interpretation is added beyond what the original authors specified
• Severity classification using the published cut-off scores (e.g., minimal, mild, moderate, severe)
• Instant results calculated in the browser — no data is sent to any server
• Educational content explaining the instrument's purpose, target population, psychometric properties, and clinical context
• References to the original validation studies and scoring manuals
• No login required — every tool is freely accessible at groundedscribe.com/tools

All severity labels use the original instrument's published categories. Where instruments use numerical ranges without named categories, the tool displays the score and range without adding interpretive labels.

Categories Covered

The library spans five clinical domains:

Mental Health — Depression (PHQ-9, PHQ-2, CES-D-R, GDS-15), anxiety (GAD-7, GAD-2, DASS-21), general distress (K-10, K-5, CORE-10, CORE-OM, YP-CORE), substance use (URICA, CIWA-Ar), trauma (PC-PTSD-5, PCL-5, ACE, LEC-5), personality (IPIP-NEO-20, IPIP-NEO-120), autism (CAT-Q, CATI), and wellbeing (RSES).

Psychiatry — Psychotic symptoms (BPRS), global severity (CGI), and movement disorders (AIMS).

Nursing — Early warning scores (NEWS2) and clinical withdrawal (CIWA-Ar).

Cognitive Screening — Delirium (4AT).

Child & Adolescent — Youth distress (DASS-Y, YP-CORE) and child dissociation (CDC).

How Practitioners Use These Tools

In-Session Scoring

Open any tool from the tools page during a consultation. Complete the scoring, review the result with your client, and use the score to inform your clinical documentation. The score does not leave the browser unless you choose to save it.

Client Self-Report via Assessment Invitations

For client-completed instruments, Grounded Scribe users can send assessment invitations directly from the client record. The client receives a secure link, completes the assessment on their device, and the results are recorded against their profile. Practitioners review the results and incorporate them into session notes as appropriate.

Outcome Tracking Over Time

When assessments are completed through the platform (rather than the public calculator), scores are tracked longitudinally. Practitioners can view score trends across sessions, supporting outcome measurement and clinical review. All interpretation remains the practitioner's responsibility — the platform displays scores and published severity ranges.

Licensing and Validation

Every instrument in the library has been verified for commercial use in a SaaS platform. Public domain instruments (PHQ-9, GAD-7, NEWS2, and others) are freely available for clinical and commercial use. Instruments with specific licensing requirements have been reviewed and confirmed as compliant.

We do not include instruments where the licensing terms prohibit use in commercial software, even when those instruments are commonly used in clinical practice. This means some well-known tools are absent from the library — if you notice a tool you expected to find, it may be excluded for licensing reasons rather than oversight.

A Note on Clinical Responsibility

These tools are structured scoring aids based on published guidelines. They calculate scores using the instrument's original algorithms and display severity classifications using the published cut-off ranges. They do not diagnose conditions, recommend treatments, or replace clinical judgement.

The practitioner is always the final authority on how assessment results are interpreted and applied in clinical care. A score is one data point among many — clinical context, client history, presentation, and professional expertise all inform clinical decision-making.

Explore all 35 tools — free, instant, no login required.

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