A research and development effort for earlier suicide prevention.
Suicide prevention deserves more than awareness.
The CAMP Initiative exists to translate decades of suicide prevention research into a practical framework that individuals, families, workplaces, and communities can use before suffering becomes crisis. That framework is the initiative's goal, not its starting point.
Many existing resources focus on recognizing a crisis after it has already developed.
Know One believes there is an opportunity to help people recognize hidden suffering earlier.
Our goal is to bridge the gap between suicide prevention science and everyday life.
The initiative aims to produce practical tools that help people:
without replacing professional mental health care.
CAMP currently represents four evidence-informed domains that can help people think more clearly about hidden suffering, suicidal ideation, and earlier prevention.
The framework is intended to provide a shared language for both the person who is struggling and the people around them.
It is a working model that will continue to evolve through research, clinical review, and lived experience.
Our commitment is to let the science shape CAMP rather than forcing evidence to fit the acronym.
Who truly knows me?
Connection is more than being surrounded by people. It means having relationships where someone knows your normal patterns, recognizes meaningful changes, and creates space for honest disclosure.
For the person who is struggling, Connection asks whether anyone truly knows what they are carrying.
For a friend, spouse, family member, or supporter, Connection asks whether the relationship goes beyond surface-level interaction.
What meaning am I assigning to what happened?
People do not respond only to events. They respond to how they interpret those events.
Shame, defeat, humiliation, perceived burdensomeness, and feeling trapped can cause a painful situation to appear permanent or impossible to survive.
For the person who is struggling, Appraisal asks what conclusions they are treating as unquestionable facts.
For someone supporting them, Appraisal asks what the person may believe the situation says about their identity, future, or value.
What still matters, and what feels lost?
Meaning includes the relationships, roles, responsibilities, values, identities, and experiences that make life feel worth continuing.
A suicidal crisis may develop when a person believes the parts of life that gave them meaning have been destroyed or can never be restored.
For the person who is struggling, Meaning asks what still matters and what has become difficult to see.
For someone supporting them, Meaning asks which parts of the person's identity or life may feel threatened, lost, or disconnected.
Do not present family, work, faith, or any other source of meaning as an obligation to remain alive.
Am I seeing the entire situation or only the pain in front of me?
Severe distress can narrow attention and make one outcome appear inevitable.
Perspective does not mean minimizing pain or forcing positive thinking. It means creating enough distance to question whether the current situation is permanent, whether every option has been considered, and whether the mind under stress is presenting the whole picture.
For the person who is struggling, Perspective asks what alternatives may currently be difficult to see.
For someone supporting them, Perspective asks whether they are assuming the person is safe simply because they appear social, functional, or calm.
CAMP is designed as a shared prevention language.
The same four domains can be viewed from two perspectives:
A reflective check for someone experiencing distress, hidden suffering, or suicidal thoughts.
A relational check for someone who notices a meaningful change in a friend, spouse, family member, coworker, or other person they care about.
CAMP does not turn friends or family members into clinicians.
It creates a structure for noticing, understanding, and starting conversations earlier.
Connection, appraisal, meaning, and perspective appear across multiple areas of suicide prevention, cognitive psychology, resilience research, and the study of suicidal ideation.
The exact words and structure may change as CAMP develops.
Know One will not preserve an acronym at the expense of better evidence.
The current model should be presented as a working foundation, not a finished answer.
The initiative will not be built around a catchy acronym.
The framework will be built from research first.
Only after identifying the strongest scientific foundations will the final CAMP Framework be established.
Our responsibility is to let evidence shape the framework instead of forcing the science to fit predetermined ideas.
These are the stages the CAMP Initiative will follow to produce the CAMP Framework.
Review major theories of suicide, suicidal ideation, recovery, resilience, and prevention.
Identify common themes supported across multiple scientific models.
Develop a practical framework that ordinary people can understand and use.
Seek review from clinicians, researchers, attempt survivors, people with lived experience, and family members.
Revise the framework as new evidence becomes available.
How distress can remain private while daily life continues, and what that may mean for earlier recognition.
How being known may differ from being socially present, active, or surrounded by others.
How thoughts of suicide are described in research and how they may change over time.
What the period after a crisis or attempt can involve, and where public understanding is still limited.
Factors that research associates with greater support or reduced risk, without treating them as guarantees.
Concepts used in research to describe feeling stuck, without options, or unable to see a way forward.
How shame may affect whether someone speaks openly about distress or accepts support.
How connection, inclusion, and belonging appear across suicide prevention research.
How noticing meaningful change earlier may create more opportunities for support before a crisis.
Know One will never claim that the CAMP Framework prevents suicide unless supported by strong scientific evidence.
Every major component of the framework will be reviewed against current research.
We would rather move slowly and responsibly than publish something that is unsupported.
Know One welcomes collaboration from researchers, clinicians, educators, people with lived experience, families, and organizations committed to advancing suicide prevention.
The strongest framework will not be created by one person.
It will be built through science, collaboration, humility, and continual learning.
Help fewer people reach the point where suicide feels like the only option.
