Our Approach

Better, Faster, Stronger

Instead of trying to invent new treatments or therapies, our team focuses on finding ways to make good treatments even better. To improve existing treatments, we use methods guided by the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST), a way to improve programs and treatments step-by-step. Using this approach, we first identify the key pieces of the treatment, determine which parts work best, and then combine the most effective parts into a new version. The new version is then compared to previous versions of the treatment to see if these changes are better. Alternatively, we switch the order of different pieces of the treatment — for example, A before B compared to B before A — then compare the these orders to see if one works better. It’s like testing different ingredients in a recipe to find out which ones make it taste best before serving the final dish. This approach helps make treatments more effective and efficient, and easier to deliver.

More Than the Sum of Its Parts

Emergence is the idea that when many small parts interact with each other, something new and more complex can appear that isn’t obvious from looking at the parts alone. For example, a single bird doesn’t form a flock, but when hundreds of birds fly together, patterns and movements “emerge” that no one bird controls. In simple terms, emergence means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and new patterns or behaviors appear that can’t be fully predicted by studying each part separately. As applied to suicide, emergence means that suicide does not arise from one single cause (like depression, trauma, or stress) on its own. Instead, it emerges from complex interactions among many different factors — biological, psychological, social, and situational — that influence each other over time. Just as a flock of birds moves in patterns that no one bird directs, suicidal crises often follow patterns that can’t be predicted by any one symptom or event. It’s the pattern of interactions that signal when someone is heading towards suicide and when someone is recovering from a high-risk state. Our work seeks to identify these patterns and use them to improve the effectiveness of treatment.

Flipping Coins

Many of our studies use randomization. Randomization means that people who volunteer for a study are assigned to different groups by chance, like flipping a coin or drawing names from a hat. This is important because it helps make sure that groups are fair and similar at the start of the study. When groups are similar, we can be more confident that any differences at the end — like who got better or recovered faster — are caused by the treatment itself, not by something else. Randomization helps make our research fair, unbiased, and trustworthy, so we can know what really works.