The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality, otherwise known as CAMS (Jobes, 2000; Jobes, Luoma, Jacoby, & Mann, 1998), is one of only a handful of suicide-specific manualized assessment and treatment approaches for clinical care of suicidal patients. There are many novel aspects to this empirically developed protocol. For example, CAMS uses an evolved version of the Suicide Status Form - SSF (Jobes, Jacoby, Cimbolic, & Hustead, 1997) to guide a collaborative phenomenological assessment of the patientís suicidality. The SSF used in CAMS has been expanded to include both quantitative measures as well qualitative measures that are used to reliably assess the patientís suicidality relying on their own words. This approach asserts that the patient's multidimensional experience of suicidality is the assessment gold standard that both the clinician and patient must thoroughly understand before effective treatment can occur. In this regard, our model defies traditional and reductionistic "medical-model" approaches that emphasize the expert-doctor searching for diagnostic symptoms and developing a treatment plan based only on the patient's DSM-IV diagnosis. Indeed, the collaborative use of the SSF leads to the emergence of underlying suicidal constructs that can be used to directly inform and shape the treatment plan. The patient thus becomes a co-author of his or her own clinical treatment plan, which increases compliance and strengthens the clinical alliance therein.

T_Model.pdf Traditional (medical model) assessment of suicide risk versus Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)

Jobes, D. A. (2000). Collaborating to prevent suicide: A clinical-research perspective. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 30, 8-17.

Jobes, D. A., Jacoby, A. M., Cimbolic, P., & Hustead, L. A. T. (1997). The assessment and treatment of suicidal clients in a university counseling center. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 44, 368-377.

Jobes, D. A., Luoma, J. B., Jacoby, A. M., & Mann, R. E. (1998). Manual for the collaborative assessment and management of suicidality (CAMS). Unpublished manuscript.

Managing Suicidal Risk
A Collaborative Approach
David A. Jobes, Foreword by Edwin S. Shneidman
Publication Date: August 2006, Guilford Press

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.

http://www.guilford.com/cgi-bin/cartscript.cgi?page=pr/jobes.htm&dir=pp/paci&cart_id=

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