Review author: Keri A. Frantell, PhD
Citation: Miller, I. W., Gaudiano, B. A., & Weinstock, L. M. (2022). The Coping Long Term with Active Suicide Program (CLASP): A Multi-Modal Intervention for Suicide Prevention, Clinician Guide. New York: Oxford University Press (121 pages).
This book provides a step-by-step guide to implementing the Coping Long-Term with Active Suicide Program (CLASP) for clinicians. Included are chapters on the theoretical underpinnings, the overall goals of the program, session-by-session outlines for the intervention, training considerations, adaptations for specific populations (e.g., emergency department referrals, veterans, patients with serious mental illness, and adolescents), and a helpful frequently asked questions section.
This book outlines CLASP, an adjunctive, multi-modal, multi-orientation approach to patient care for those with a recent suicidal event (i.e., hospitalization, significant ideation or attempts). This program blends together approaches from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Family Intervention Telephone Tracking while targeting common risk factors for suicide (i.e., hopelessness, social/family support, problem solving, and treatment adherence). This program relies on the client identifying a significant other (e.g., family member, partner, friend), though the manual offers alternatives if no significant other can be identified. The CLASP treatment advisor aims to meet in person three times with the client and a fourth time with both the client a significant other present before moving into 11 phone calls each with the patient and the significant other.
This manual provides a session-by-session outline of the goals for each session, detailing how much time to spend on each task. The appendices included also offer the documents necessary to follow this plan to fidelity. Though the manual outlines the need for training in CLASP prior to initiating it in practice, the manual itself provides a great starting point for even more novice clinicians to understand the goals and tasks associated with CLASP.
The authors recommend that CLASP be implemented by graduate level clinicians with at least three years of experience in working with (assessing and treating) suicidal patients. Clinicians who have not had extensive training in the program will likely have a good understanding of how it is implemented after reading this manual, making it a beneficial read for those who work with patients already enrolled in a CLASP service as well as for clinic staff looking to expand their adjunctive services/case management approach. In addition, because this book is so thorough in providing sample scripts, worksheets, and interventions that target the primary risk factors for suicide, any clinician working with more chronic suicidality may find benefit in reading or understanding this set of interventions.
I finished reading this book with a sense that I had a comprehensive understanding of this program, when to apply it, and how. There is a lengthy section in the book that details what each session or client contact should look like, including several examples of ways to phrase things or information to offer to clients. Perhaps most notably, the book offers several appendices that the authors encourage readers to copy and use in their own practice (or to download from their website). The combination of a step-by-step session guide paired with the appendices makes this a manual that is easy to understand and use.
While I found this book to be a useful tool for clinicians to understand the fundamentals of CLASP, I would have liked to see more information about what it would mean to apply cultural competency or cultural understandings to this intervention approach. The guide mentions the need for cultural competency in a few areas but does not explicate how the authors anticipate the intervention may require adaptations or what those adaptations might look like. This may be an area of particular interest for future research and clinical application.