This free Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS) is a 30 item, printable assessment tool designed to help professionals identify anxiety symptoms in older adults. It is available as a geriatric anxiety scale PDF and offers a structured way to explore somatic, cognitive and affective experiences of anxiety over the past week. The tool includes a scoring system, severity guidance and clear interpretation information, making it suitable for mental health practitioners, counsellors, therapists, psychologists, social workers, GPs and wellbeing teams who support older people.
The first 25 items form the main assessment and cover key areas such as physical symptoms, worry, fear, irritability, sleep changes and emotional distress. Items 26 to 30 explore related concerns such as health worries, finances, family issues and fear of becoming a burden. The resource also provides clear scoring instructions, including subscale breakdowns for somatic, cognitive and affective anxiety, which supports accurate clinical interpretation and straightforward score interpretation.
This assessment can be used in therapy sessions, counselling, mental health reviews, social care assessments, primary care settings and wellbeing check ins. It helps practitioners understand the type and severity of anxiety a person is experiencing, supports care planning and guides discussions about coping strategies, support needs and treatment options. The scale is particularly useful when exploring anxiety linked to ageing, health concerns, bereavement, social isolation or long term conditions.
This downloadable PDF is ideal for professionals searching for geriatric anxiety assessments, mental health screening tools for older adults, clinical anxiety scales, therapy resources, counselling materials or psychological assessment tools that support accurate identification and monitoring of anxiety in later life.
