What is NAMRS?

The National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System (NAMRS) is the first comprehensive, national reporting system for adult protective services (APS) programs. It collects quantitative and qualitative data on APS practices and policies, and the outcomes of investigations into the maltreatment of older adults and adults with disabilities. The goal of NAMRS is to provide consistent, accurate national data on the exploitation and abuse of older adults and adults with disabilities, as reported to APS agencies.

While NAMRS is still in its infancy, the information it will provide in the years to come will directly inform prevention and intervention practices at all levels of the adult maltreatment field. It will provide a better understanding of the characteristics of those experiencing and perpetrating abuse, as well as identify system gaps for responding to maltreatment and preventing repeat maltreatment. As states, the District of Columbia, and territories (referred to collectively as “states” for brevity) continue to improve information systems, add data elements, train staff on new data collection methods, and report additional data, NAMRS data will become an extremely valuable tool.

NAMRS is a voluntary system that collects both summary and de-identified case-level data, on an annual basis, on APS investigations submitted by states. NAMRS consists of three components (please see the NAMRS Definitions of Code Values for a description of the terms used in the three component documents):

1. Agency Component—submitted by all agencies on their policies and practices. 
2. Case Component—data on client characteristics, services, and perpetrator characteristics, provided by agencies that have report-level tracking systems. 
3. Key Indicators Component—aggregated data on key statistics of investigations and victims, provided by agencies that do not have report-level tracking systems or are unable to provide case-level data. 

All states are asked to provide the Agency Component data. States then decide to submit either Key Indicators data, or Case Component data (but not both). For FFY 2016, the first year of data reporting, 54 of 56 states submitted data to NAMRS. In FFY 2017, 55 of 56 states submitted information. This high level of voluntary participation reflects the value that leaders in the field of adult maltreatment see in this data. 

To read about the background of NAMRS, visit our NAMRS Background Page. To view annual NAMRS reports, visit our Adult Maltreatment Reports page.