Background Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in young people aged under 25 years, and this group are at an increased risk for suicidal ideation and behaviour. In Ireland, the National Student Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Framework outlines that third-level student services must use appropriate evidence-based interventions to support the range of presentations to student counselling services. The aim of this research was to explore counsellors’ experiences of using a suicide specific assessment and intervention tool, The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) in student counselling services in Ireland.

Methods A survey was conducted among staff working in student counselling services across all Higher Education Institutes in Ireland, with short follow up interviews with a sub-group of survey respondents who opted into an interview. Questions addressed: 1. CAMS training, 2. Implementation of CAMS, 3. Obstacles encountered when using CAMS, and 4. CAMS as a standard approach in student counselling services. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using Braun and Clark thematic analysis.

Results In total, 64 counsellors completed the survey and 10 participated in a follow up interview. The survey revealed that all participants had completed CAMS training and had a generally positive experience with the training, with 88.1% of respondents agreeing that CAMS training has had a positive effect on suicidal patients. Despite this, more than half of participants (55.2%) encountered an obstacle when using CAMS in the previous 3 months. The most mentioned obstacle was time constraints when integrating CAMS into a short-term counselling model. Two thirds (69.8%) of participants agreed that there were additional supports required to maintain CAMS in practice. Seven themes emerged from the interviews; reasons for engaging with CAMS – ‘feeling passionate about upskilling’, positives of CAMS training- ‘I have something in my toolbox’, obstacles to CAMS training, additional training and support required to maintain CAMS, implementing CAMS – ‘adapting to a short-term counselling model’, CAMS for counsellors versus psychologists, CAMS as a standard approach.

Conclusion Working with suicidal clients can be a daunting and challenging experience for student counsellors, this study provides an insight from student counsellors who are using CAMS and have adapted it to fit a short-term counselling model. The findings provide important learnings for implementing evidence-based interventions in higher-education settings.