The Chronological Assessment of Suicide Events (CASE Approach) is an empirically evidence-based interviewing strategy whose goal is to improve clinician abilities to sensitively uncover suicidal ideation (SI), planning, actions, and intent with markedly increased validity. The online courses allow these skills to be mastered by a single clinician or scaled to thousands of clinicians via state/nationally driven initiatives. Shawn Christopher Shea, M.D. – the creator of the CASE Approach/designer of the courses – personally teaches and demonstrates the CASE Approach with videos. Available: Training Institute for Suicide Assessment – www.SuicideAssessment.com. Clinician outcomes include:

1. The ability to use the CASE Approach as both a rapid, 3-question screening tool for the presence of SI that can – immediately, and in an engaging and conversational fashion – be flexibly expanded to more accurately uncover a client’s potentially hidden method of choice for suicide (MOC), procurement of their MOC, extent of actions taken practicing with their MOC, and immediate intentions to use the MOC to proceed with suicide in clients at immediate risk (next 24-hours) or imminent risk (next seven days).
2. Unlike semi-structured formats, CASE trained clinicians never use cue sheets – or record information – while uncovering SI with the CASE Approach. Consequently, clinicians can utilize 100% of their attention to compassionately connect with the client while carefully looking for subtle nonverbal indicators that the client is distorting or withholding information.
3. The CASE Approach is unique in that it was developed from innovations in the field of clinical interviewing (e.g. easily learned, yet sophisticated, Validity Techniques and advanced empathic techniques for conversationally structuring interviews from the field of Facilics). New and experienced clinicians in mental health and primary care learn to utilize numerous examples of these Validity Techniques and Facilic principles to unlock hidden suicide intent. The CASE Approach can be utilized as a solo method for screening and comprehensively uncovering SI or in conjunction with well-established approaches such as the ASQ, the C-SSRS, the ‘Suicide Inquiry’ section of the SAFE-T Suicide Assessment approach, or when completing the section about eliciting SI in Part-B of the SSF-5 of the CAMS.