Managing Suicidal Risk: A Collaborative Approach (Third Edition) by David A. Jobes, Ph.D. The Guilford Press, 2023

Excerpt

Managing Suicidal Risk: A Collaborative Approach (Third Edition) by David A Jobes, with a foreword from Thomas E. Joiner is a comprehensive, user-friendly introduction to the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)® approach to treating patients who are suicidal. Although a plethora of evidence-based measurement tools have been developed in recent decades to assess suicidality, we as a field remain poor at effectively predicting and treating suicidal thoughts long-term. Further, changes in the experience of hospitalization for suicidality in past years has resulted in a need for outpatient-based care that clinicians, patients, and their families can feel confident providing and receiving. Thus, the CAMS approach, a suicide-focused, outpatient oriented, flexible, and nondenominational treatment program which is firmly rooted in science and relatively easy to learn is of paramount importance. Based on the pillars of empathy, collaboration, honesty, and a suicide-focus, Jobes’ book is a thoughtful clinical handbook that provides convincing evidence for the utility of CAMS as well as a thorough introduction to the use of CAMS in one’s own practice. The book describes the development of the CAMS framework, then logically discusses the implementation of CAMS, from risk assessment through relapse prevention, with a case example intertwined through the chapters. …