10 Stories for 10 Years
It can be hard to know when or how to seek help. Sometimes short interactions can have a lasting impact.
“Graham,” a 26-year-old Caucasian man in the South, was playing soccer with his friends one Saturday afternoon. All of a sudden, he experienced a severe asthma attack. He tried to use his inhaler, but his symptoms only worsened. His friends noticed his lips were turning blue and he was struggling to breathe. Graham’s teammates called for help, and an ambulance rushed him to the ER. Graham was admitted to the hospital, where he received treatment and began to recover. The following day, as he was signing his discharge papers, he shared with his nurse that he wished the asthma ended his life. Because the nurse heard Graham express serious thoughts of suicide, she called a mental health clinician for a Medical Consult.
The clinician arrived in Graham’s room with a camping chair folded over his shoulder. “Unlike the heavy chairs in the hospital rooms, the camping chairs allow us to quite literally level the playing field. We can come meet the patient exactly where they are, whether that be on a breathing tube in their bed or sitting on the floor for a change of pace from the bed they have been in for days.”
He set up the chair next to Graham’s bed and sat down by his side. His clinician was CAMS Trained™, and utilized a specific technique called CAMS Brief Intervention (BI), an hour-long, therapeutic assessment that helps practitioners identify, assess, and refer individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts in high-volume, high stress environments like the Emergency Department and psychiatric inpatient units. Collaboratively, he and Graham followed the therapeutic assessment and created a treatment and stabilization plan. Here, Graham revealed his decade-long guilt stemming from an accident, in which his driving caused the death of his younger brother’s life.
Graham was discharged from the hospital and received a referral for outpatient therapy. This type of treatment was something he never would have considered before. But empowered by the trust his clinician established, albeit such a short interaction, Graham was determined to get better. His clinician shared, “That’s exactly what CAMS BI is intended to do. It’s not a cure, but rather the start of a longer engagement toward recovery.” Graham established an appointment with the therapist he was referred to. Over time, he resolved his suicidality and learned to forgive himself for the death of his brother and honor his life each year on the day of the accident by driving their grandmother to her favorite ice cream shop two towns away.
