Independent Living Scales (ILS)

The Independent Living Scales asks a person to actually do the things independent living requires — count change, read a medicine label, use a telephone directory, say what they would do if the power went out. That performance basis is the point: it produces evidence rather than an opinion about what someone can manage.

Sixty-eight items sit in five scales: memory and orientation, managing money, managing home and transportation, health and safety, and social adjustment. Each is scored 0, 1, or 2 for competence. Two further subscales cut across the same items — one for performance and factual knowledge, one for problem solving and judgment. Results are used to inform decisions about supervision needs and living arrangements.

Licensing Notes: ILS has qualification-restricted purchase. The kit includes the manual, record forms, a stimulus booklet, and a pouch of facsimile items — a driver's licence, credit card, and key — used during administration. Record forms are consumables. Reproduction requires Pearson permission.

Learn More: Two things matter for interpretation. Cut scores were established with adults 65 and older living independently, semi-independently, or dependently, with additional reference data from people aged 17 and up who have a psychiatric diagnosis, dementia, intellectual disability, or traumatic brain injury. And the ILS carries a small number of screening items rated adequate or inadequate that do not count toward the total that are easy to score by mistake.