The Counseling and Psychological Services Center and the Assessment, Support, and Counseling (ASC) Center at Appalachian State University are pleased to announce that the Program and Education Committee from the North Carolina Chapter American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) funded a joint request to provide training in the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) Model. The CAMS approach, an evidence-based suicide prevention program, will be scaled up and implemented by campus and community clinicians from the aforementioned agencies along with other community clinicians who have a vested interest in preventing death by suicide. There is a clear need to provide expeditious assessment and effective intervention for those at risk for suicide, especially in rural western North Carolina where suicide rates are well above the State and National averages (CDC, 2013). Dr. Denise Lovin (Counseling Center) and Dr. Kurt Michael (ASC, Psychology Department) led the effort to scale up CAMS in order to more effectively address this public health problem. As a community of practitioners, Drs. Lovin and Michael believe that the training will better equip our clinicians to promote the safety of our college students at Appalachian and the adolescents and families who are part of three different K-12 university-school partnerships in Western North Carolina (Alleghany, Ashe, Watauga). Moreover, CAMS and the functions of both groups align well with the mission and vision of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (https://afsp.org). The generous award in the amount of $19,150 will cover the costs for bringing CAMS founder, Dr. David Jobes, to campus for in-person training along with online pre-training and support materials costs. Betsy Rhodes, the North Carolina Area Director for ASFP presented the award to the recipients on December 6, 2016. For more information on CAMS, visit the website: www.cams-care.com.
Counseling and Psychological Services Center staff hold up giant check for suicide prevention program
