Managing Suicidal Risk, First Edition: A Collaborative Approach

by David A. Jobes, Edwin S. Shneidman (Foreword by)

Overview

This clinical manual offers essential tools and guidance for therapists of any orientation faced with the complex challenges of assessing and treating a suicidal patient. In a large, ready-to-photocopy format, the book provides step-by-step instructions and reproducible forms for evaluating suicidal risk, developing a suicide-specific outpatient treatment plan, and tracking clinical progress and outcomes using documentation that can help to reduce the risk of malpractice liability. In addition to providing a flexible structure for assessment and intervention, The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) approach is designed to strengthen the therapeutic alliance and increase patient motivation. Highly readable and user friendly, the volume builds on 15 years of empirically oriented clinical research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781593853273
Publisher:	Guilford Publications, Inc.
Publication date:	07/21/2006
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

David A. Jobes, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at The Catholic University of America, where he is also the Codirector of Clinical Training of the PhD clinical psychology program. With research interests in suicidology, he has published extensively in the field and routinely conducts professional training in clinical suicidology. Dr. Jobes is a consultant to the U.S. Air Force Suicide Prevention Program and is a clinical consultant to the Psychology Service of the Washington, DC, Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He has served as a consultant to various Washington, DC, area counseling centers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Jobes is Associate Editor for the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. He is a past president, treasurer, and board member of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) and is a recipient of the AAS Edwin S. Shneidman Award in recognition of early career contributions to suicidology. As a board-certified clinical psychologist (American Board of Professional Psychology), Dr. Jobes maintains a private clinical and forensic practice at the Washington Psychological Center.

Table of Contents

1. Contemporary Clinical Challenges and the Need for the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)
2. A Review of the Suicide Status Form and the Origin of CAMS
3. The Early Identification of Suicide Risk
4. CAMS Risk Assessment: The Collaborative Use of the SSF
5. CAMS Treatment Planning: Coauthoring the Outpatient Treatment Plan
6. CAMS Suicide Status Tracking: Assessment and Treatment Plan Updates
7. Suicide Status Outcomes: The Completion of CAMS
8. CAMS as a Means of Decreasing Malpractice Liability
9. Future Developments: Using CAMS across Settings and Future Research
Epilogue
Appendixes:
A. The Suicide Status Form-III (SSF-III): Assessment, Treatment Planning, Tracking, and Outcome Forms
B. Coding Manual for the SSF Likert Scales: Qualitative Assessment
C. Coding Manual for SSF Reasons for Living versus Reasons for Dying
D. Coding Manual for the SSF One-Thing Response
E. Frequently Asked Questions about CAMS
F. Complete CAMS Case Example

Interviews

Helping professionals from a range of backgrounds, including clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, family therapists, and pastoral counselors; also of interest to graduate students and trainees.

Editorial Reviews

"The book is the culmination of 20 years of clinical work and research with suicidal patients....The book consists of 9 chapters and is well written, illustrated, and referenced. It also includes several helpful appendices showing complete case examples. With 222 pages, it is easy reading, again a tribute to the communication skills of the author....This book is indubitably a masterpiece and ought to benefit providers and patients alike....Those of us who, due to the nature of our practice or preference, can see the patients along the continuum—from inpatient to outpatient care—will gain a lot from this book."

Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

"There is essential clinical wisdom here, informed by empirical data, experience, theory, and pragmatism. Simply stated, this book is an important tool for any clinician who aspires to engage the suicidal mind and clinically venture forth into the world of 'psychache.' This book is good news for the clinician and even better news for the lives of patients this approach will save."—from the Foreword by Edwin S. Shneidman, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

"An exemplary treatment guide must combine science, clinical wisdom, and relevant personal experience, and must attend to the sometimes vexing everyday realities of clinicians seeing patients. Who is up to such a daunting task? David A. Jobes, for one. His model, The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS), is the epitome of a science-based, clinician-friendly approach, and his book does CAMS due justice. Readers of this book will be better positioned to understand, assess, and treat suicidal behavior."—Thomas Joiner, PhD, Florida State University

"It is rare to find a book that is firmly grounded in science and that also offers a flexible, commonsense model for clinical practice. Jobes has given us just such a gem. He provides essential tools for clinicians of every persuasion and level of expertise. This book is ideal for training graduate students or providing an infrastructure to supervision for psychologists, counselors, psychiatrists, social workers, or nurses who have contact with suicidal patients. The book will leave the reader with a newfound sense of confidence that his or her approach is embedded in 'best practices,' has a wealth of empirical support, and is one that patients will respond to in a positive fashion."—M. David Rudd, PhD, Texas Tech University

"Managing Suicidal Risk effectively meets the critical need for clear guidelines for assessing and treating the suicidal person. In the belief that most suicidal people want to end their pain, not their life, Jobes offers the clinician a comprehensive, multifaceted handbook tailored to present-day treatment realities. This book can serve to guide the clinician in providing the suicide-prone patient with hope and help through a life-threatening crisis. It is well suited for specialized courses in suicide prevention and crisis intervention, and for more general graduate-level courses in mental health counseling and assessment."—Katherine van Wormer, PhD, MSSW, University of Northern Iowa

"For the last decade, Jobes and his colleagues have been researching and refining their novel therapeutic approach. Jobes offers an antidote to haphazard and personalized views of working with suicidal patients, integrating the theoretical constructs of Edwin Shneidman, Aaron Beck, and Roy Baumeister into a comprehensive and evidence-based treatment strategy. The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) gives clients leverage to fight for their lives. Every graduate student and clinician working with suicidal patients needs to read this manual and learn this approach."—Morton M. Silverman, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior

"The CAMS approach has quickly achieved best-practice status and, as more clinical trials are completed, is destined to be sufficiently evidence-based to become a 'must' in every clinician’s repertoire. This accessible guide teaches clinicians to listen to and align with their patients, to consistently target suicide risk, and to effectively reduce that risk. Jobes is a master teacher, and readers of this book are lucky to be among his students."—Alan L. Berman, PhD, Executive Director, American Association of Suicidology

From the Publisher

"David Jobes, an expert in the field of suicidology, offers an innovative method of approaching the assessment, treating, and tracking outcomes with suicidal individuals....The text is likely to resonate with a wide variety of clinicians, from the novice to the expert with years of experience."

Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic

"A user-friendly manual....This manual packs quite a wallop for a book so deceptively easy to read. It is a genuine advance in the state of the art and science of suicide prevention."

PsycCRITIQUES

"An essential addition to any clinician's repertoire of books, especially for those interested in working with depressed clients. The success of the CAMS framework and what sets it apart from other treatment approaches is the emphasis placed on understanding the broader, underlying issues at the core of the suicidal patient. Jobes provides an alternative approach instead of the traditional focus on suicidal ideation as a symptom of a broader psychopathology. Moreover, it is clear that Jobes speaks from a scientist-practitioner perspective as evidenced by his extensive knowledge and activity in suicide research as well as by his personal case examples. Jobes successfully provides the clinician with the light needed to help those individuals who have been trapped by the darkness of suicide."

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy

Reviewer: Steven T Herron, MD (CPI/Assurance Health and Wellness)
Description: In an effort to develop a tool for clinicians to use in the assessment of suicidal patients, the author presents an approach known as the Collaborative Assessment of Management of Suicidality (CAMS).
Purpose: Despite the advancing literature about suicide, there remains relatively little for clinicians to use reliably in the approach to managing suicide risk. This book attempts to address this area using a comprehensive and collaborative tool for mental health providers.
Audience: While of interest to anyone in the field of mental health, this book is primarily written for those individuals on the front lines, treating the mentally ill, and more specifically, those with either chronic or acute suicidal ideation.
Features: Beginning with an overview of what knowledge is lacking in the area of suicidal assessment and treatment, and progressing through the presentation of the CAMS risk assessment tool (including the Suicide Status Form-III) and its implementation and utilization, this book also includes numerous appendixes containing forms and coding instructions for this system.
Assessment: Though I have only a passing familiarity with other instruments used in the assessment of suicidality, I have read much of the literature on suicide assessment and treatment, and agree a more structured and thorough approach to this problem might lead to improved understanding and outcomes for these patients. This proposed system is both complete and has the benefit of being able to be modified to fit the individual circumstances of each patient regarding the nature of their suicidal ideation. The comprehensive approach could prove quite useful clinically, though my primary concerns regarding this approach are its cumbersome nature and the relative lack of data for more chronic patient populations who generally are the most challenging to treat. I look forward to reading additional data as this system is tested on other populations to determine its overall reliability and validity.

Doody's Review Service

Reviewer: Steven T. Herron, MD (University of Arizona Health Sciences Center)
Description: In an effort to develop a tool for clinicians to use in the assessment of suicidal patients, the author presents an approach known as the Collaborative Assessment of Management of Suicidality (CAMS).
Purpose: Despite the advancing literature about suicide, there remains relatively little for clinicians to use reliably in the approach to managing suicide risk. This book attempts to address this area using a comprehensive and collaborative tool for mental health providers.
Audience: While of interest to anyone in the field of mental health, this book is primarily written for those individuals on the front lines, treating the mentally ill, and more specifically, those with either chronic or acute suicidal ideation.
Features: Beginning with an overview of what knowledge is lacking in the area of suicidal assessment and treatment, and progressing through the presentation of the CAMS risk assessment tool (including the Suicide Status Form-III) and its implementation and utilization, this book also includes numerous appendixes containing forms and coding instructions for this system.
Assessment: Though I have only a passing familiarity with other instruments used in the assessment of suicidality, I have read much of the literature on suicide assessment and treatment, and agree a more structured and thorough approach to this problem might lead to improved understanding and outcomes for these patients. This proposed system is both complete and has the benefit of being able to be modified to fit the individual circumstances of each patient regarding the nature of their suicidal ideation. The comprehensive approach could prove quite useful clinically, though my primary concerns regarding this approach are its cumbersome nature and the relative lack of data for more chronic patient populations who generally are the most challenging to treat. I look forward to reading additional data as this system is tested on other populations to determine its overall reliability and validity.