Clinical resources on suicide

[jdawgg]

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Any recommendations on books about suicide assessment, suicidology, etc? Wasn't really emphasized in my program and I'm finding gaps in my knowledge and skills in this area. Thanks!

 

[AcronymAllergy]

If you do a lit search for CAMS (Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality), that should bring up quite a few articles related to that system (and a few books as well, I believe).

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Any recommendations on books about suicide assessment, suicidology, etc? Wasn't really emphasized in my program and I'm finding gaps in my knowledge and skills in this area. Thanks!

You'd be surprised how many programs really don't teach enough practical/transferable skills when it comes to assessment of suicide risk and treatment planning w. patients who are actively or recently suicidal. There are plenty of professionals who really don't know enough about this area, at least they aren't as familiar with the more current literature. As for resources, you may want to check out the AAS website, as they should have some good resources.

 

[psychology24]

If you do a lit search for CAMS (Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality), that should bring up quite a few articles related to that system (and a few books as well, I believe).

+1. Look into writings by David Jobes

 

[paramour]

+1 re: Jobes and CAMS (his book is Managing Suicidal Risk; there are also some workshop/seminar videos floating around if you can nag them).

Also try lit searches for Bergman and Links (they're in Canada). They've conducted some research into groups for suicide intervention and some of their articles go into the proposed mechanisms of action, targeted interventions, etc.

 

[jdawgg]

Thank you all! Very helpful recommendations.

 

[PsychApps2009]

I would also suggest reading:

.Joiner, T. E., Walker, R. L., Rudd, M. D., Jobes, D. A. (1999). Scientizing and routinizing the assessment of suicidality in outpatient practice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 30, 447-453..

This is what my clinic uses in determining suicide risk status and is incorporated into our suicide risk assessments and protocols.

This may also be informative:
Joiner, T. E., Van Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Rudd, D. M. (2009). The interpersonal theory of suicide: Guidance for working with suicidal clients. American Psychological Association: Washington, DC.

(As adjunct for further education on suicidology: Van Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Cukrowicz, K. C., Braithwaite, S. R., Selby, E. A., Joiner, T. E. (2010). The interpersonal theory of suicide. Psychological Review, 117(2), 575-600.)

ps - Dr. Joiner also occasionally does workshops on suicide risk assessments and could probably be contacted for the suicide risk protocol he uses as clinic director at FSU (re: Cukrowicz, K. C., Wingate, L. R., Driscoll, K. A., & Joiner, T. E. (2004). A standard of care for the assessment of suicide risk and associated treatment: The florida state university psychology clinic as an example. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 34(1), 87-100).

 

[paramour]

You'd be surprised how many programs really don't teach enough practical/transferable skills when it comes to assessment of suicide risk and treatment planning w. patients who are actively or recently suicidal. There are plenty of professionals who really don't know enough about this area, at least they aren't as familiar with the more current literature. As for resources, you may want to check out the AAS website, as they should have some good resources.

After working at a practicum site and asking to become more involved in their crisis services (on-call services for the local hospital and county jail, crisis services, suicide intervention program based around Jobes' framework, etc.), I'm starting to recognize how much my program did not teach me about this area. I had even taken elective coursework outside the dept (counseling psych) in crisis, so I thought I was fairly well covered. Nope!

I also find it somewhat amusing because we recently had the opportunity to provide feedback about areas that we'd potentially be interested in for our future "professional" seminars/colloquiums. They bring someone in for a quickie < 1-day workshop to educate us on on the chosen topic. Among other topics, we had some students also suggest that they'd like to see something regarding risk assessment, suicide risk/assessment, etc. The idea was knocked down by many of the "advanced" students in the program (and sounded the same by the DCT) because students purportedly receive that training in the program and should be fairly well-equipped to handle it by the time they leave the university clinic.

In the meantime, I've observed several students who go run running to find the clinic director, their clinic supervisor, or anyone as soon as their client even starts to express any suicidal ideation because they're so uncomfortable with the notion. There are some students who even think that they should not be "allowed" to discuss it unless there is a supervisor in the room with them, so if you didn't go grab your supervisor immediately while your client even said anything even remotely hinting at tinges of passive SI, then you did a bad, bad thing. Yeeeah, we're well-prepared all right.

I definitely agree that more informed education could be used in this area.