Proven Suicide Treatment Training

Learn to use the CAMS Framework® and the Suicide Status Form to treat people with serious thoughts of suicide.

Save lives through effective care

Training & Certification for Mental Health Professionals

Learn through on-demand courses, gain hands-on experience with role-play training and consultation calls, and earn Continuing Education credits through your participation

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Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality

Quickly reduces suicidal ideation in 6-8 sessions;
Reduces overall symptom distress, depression, changes suicidal cognitions, and decreases hopelessness;
Increases hope and improves clinical retention to care;
Is liked by patients
Easy to learn, and become adherent;
Optimal for suicidal ideators;
Decreases Emergency Department (ED) visits among certain subgroups.

What is CAMS?

CAMS is an evidence based, suicide-focused treatment framework backed by 35 years of clinical research with 7 published randomized controlled trials, 10 correlational trials, and 2 meta-analyses.

THE EVIDENCE BASE

Clinician Locator

Locate a trained CAMS clinician who can help you, or your loved one, struggling with suicidal thoughts and feelings.

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CLINICIAN OPT-IN

Suicide Statistics & Trends

Rates of suicide are reaching unprecedented levels, affecting lives across the world. It’s our mission to drive change through training and organizational enablement. Learn more about current suicide statistics & trends below.

50 YEARS ADDRESSING THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH

There are 12.3 million adults and 3.3 million teens in the United States with serious thoughts of suicide.

Every 40 seconds someone in the world dies by suicide.

800,000 individuals across the globe die by suicide each year, 47,646 of them in the USA.

Funding for suicide research in 2020 was $68 million versus breast cancer research funding of $709 million.

Suicide deaths have doubled over the last 50 years while every other leading cause of death has decreased.

Very few clinicians receive training to work with suicidal people using evidence-based treatments.

Data Source: SAMHSA-Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (PDF)

Why CAMS-care is Valuable

The CAMS Framework® is built on a foundation of value, with the goal of enabling individual clinicians and entire organizations to gain knowledge and experience affordably and quickly.

Evidence-based

CAMS is an assessment and treatment framework for suicidal patients that has been repeatedly proven to be effective in multiple randomized controlled clinical trials around the world in reducing suicidal ideation and increasing hope.

Affordable Training

There are multiple training elements for all types of learners starting at just $35. Becoming CAMS TRAINED costs less than $400 for an individual and may be less as part of a group. The CAMS TRAINED designation involves watching the CAMS foundational video, attending a day of role-play training, and engaging in 4 consultation calls making a provider fully capable of using CAMS with adherence.

Treatment for the Largest Population of Suicidal People

Each year, about 15 million Americans experience suicidal ideation, and about 1.8 million engage in a suicide attempt. Clinical trial evidence shows that CAMS is the most effective treatment available for suicidal ideators with promising evidence for effectively treating suicide attempts and self-harm behaviors as well.

Cost-Effective Suicide Focused Care

CAMS is designed to be a cost-effective outpatient treatment that may be used to avert expensive inpatient hospital stays while safely treating suicidal risk outside a hospital setting. Two research studies have shown that CAMS can significantly reduce visits to Emergency Departments thereby creating additional healthcare cost savings. Learn more about cost-benefits of CAMS here: McCutchan et al Plos One

Easy to Learn and Quick to Implement

In contrast to other suicide-focused interventions, CAMS is remarkably easy to learn. In a recent clinical trial with suicidal U.S. Soldiers, providers became adherent to CAMS with their first patient in four sessions. Mastery of the approach was largely achieved by their third CAMS patient. Thus, a clinician or a mental health treatment center can effectively use and master the CAMS framework quite quickly.

Enhanced Clinical Documentation, Reducing the Risk of Malpractice

One of the central elements of the CAMS Framework® is having the patient complete portions of the “Suicide Status Form” (SSF) in collaboration with the clinician. The SSF is used in every session, assessing suicide risk, and carefully documenting the patient’s suicide-focused treatment plan. CAMS medical record progress note documentation is collaboratively completed with the patient in the course of each session and can help significantly reduce exposure to malpractice liability. In other words, CAMS facilitates the completion of an exhaustive level of medical record documentation pertaining to suicide-focused assessment, treatment planning, and clinical follow-through thereby decreasing exposure to malpractice liability by ensuring competent clinical practice that far exceeds the standard of care.

Common Language and Reduced Staff Turnover

The CAMS Framework® and the Suicide Status Form provide a uniform approach for clinicians using the protocol allowing cases to be transferred across clinical services without losing patient continuity. This gives groups of clinicians a shared language and a team approach to suicide treatment and prevention potentially leading to less staff turnover and decreasing stress in the work environment.

Implementing and Using CAMS

CAMS is a therapeutic framework for suicide-specific assessment and treatment of a patient’s suicidal risk. The flexible CAMS approach makes it effective across theoretical orientations and disciplines for a wide range of suicidal patients in various treatment settings and treatment modalities.

INDIVIDUALS

Learn CAMS from the source. All elements of CAMS training are available online for individuals including attending a role-play training and consultation calls where you can ask questions or discuss cases when you are using CAMS to treat your patients.

GROUP

Learn CAMS from the source. CAMS trainings for groups incorporates the 4 components of CAMS Foundational Training: CAMS Book, CAMS Online Video Course, On-site Role Play Training and CAMS Consultation Calls. We work closely with groups to develop a flexible approach to meet your goals.

Application of CAMS

CAMS is a flexible approach that can be used across theoretical orientations and disciplines for a wide range of suicidal patients across treatment settings and different treatment modalities.

ZERO SUICIDE INITIATIVES

CAMS is referenced in the Zero-Suicide Toolkit and has been successfully integrated into many Zero Suicide initiatives in the United States and abroad. Because of its flexibility, CAMS can be readily adapted into a range of healthcare settings to meet the Zero Suicide element to TREAT suicidal thoughts and behaviors using evidence-based treatments. Learn more

GRANT APPLICATIONS

CAMS-care has experience working with funding agencies and we can help in the preparation of a grant or contract proposal and assist in collecting data relevant to the needs of the funding agency. We have created a Grants page that exhausted grant writers can literally just cut and paste into your application. Learn more

CLINICS & HOSPITALS

CAMS has been used extensively within inpatient settings and as a brief intervention within psychiatric consultation-liaison services. Learn more

STATE & LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

In recent years CAMS has been systematically rolled-out as part of state-level suicide prevention efforts. We have trained thousands of providers across different systems of care and different mental health care disciplines. We encourage you to read case studies for how Oklahoma, Ohio, Vermont, and other states are using CAMS as their treatment protocol for suicidal patients. Learn more

MILITARY & VETERANS

Military Treatment Facilities across services branches in over 30 installations throughout the U.S and 20 VA Medical Centers have trained in CAMS. Learn more

SOVEREIGN NATIONS & TRIBES

CAMS can readily accommodate traditional medicine, ritual, and culturally-sensitive interventions to treat patient-defined suicidal drivers. Clinicians in many Native American tribes are using now using CAMS successfully. Learn more

EMPLOYER PROGRAMS

Suicide prevention in the workplace is nothing new. What is new, are the ways in which employers are addressing the needs of their employees at risk for suicide. Recognizing a demand for customized employee and family assistance program (EFAP) suicide-specific services to address the most serious threat to employee productivity, attendance, and retention, CAMS-care created CAMS EAP. Learn more