Training Clinicians to Provide Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality - Group (CAMS-G) for Veterans

Abstract

Theory and research on a suicide-specific clinical framework for managing patients at high risk of suicide in a range of treatment settings forms the basis of a novel group intervention developed to care for Veterans at risk of suicide. A brief description of the structure and content of group sessions, clinician training procedures, and the approach to assessing clinician fidelity is presented. A small feasibility trial was conducted at a Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic focused on clinician fidelity to the developed treatment manual utilizing a standardized fidelity rating scale. Group facilitators achieved fidelity quickly and maintained it over the remaining group sessions that were rated. Unfortunately, the study was underpowered to examine patient outcomes, and only four clinicians served as group facilitators. The approach to training clinicians is documented and evidence that they can deliver the intervention with adherence in a real-world clinical setting is presented.

Keywords:

• Veterans
• suicide
• group therapy
• adherence
• fidelity

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Keith Jennings for his contributions to design and conduct of this study, as well as assistance training the study clinicians.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by resources and the use of facilities at the Denver VA Medical Center as well as by the Military Suicide Research Consortium (MSRC), an effort supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs under Award No (W81XWH-10-2-0178).