{"id":32,"date":"2025-10-10T08:45:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T12:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/?page_id=32"},"modified":"2025-11-05T23:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T04:23:15","slug":"approach","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover is-light wp-duotone-unset-1\" style=\"line-height:0\"><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim-0 has-background-dim\"><\/span><video class=\"wp-block-cover__video-background intrinsic-ignore\" autoplay muted loop playsinline src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/files\/2025\/11\/iStock-2186209178.mp4\" data-object-fit=\"cover\"><\/video><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-cover-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color has-large-font-size wp-elements-85338d81cf7655a9737c5b42a1b323c4\">Our Approach<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color has-large-font-size wp-elements-71396eafc108d09b0f2bf213b8b169cb\" style=\"color:#154734;font-style:normal;font-weight:100\">Better, Faster, Stronger<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:16px\">Instead of trying to invent new treatments or therapies, our team focuses on finding ways to <strong>make good treatments even better.<\/strong> 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 <strong>which parts work best<\/strong>, 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 \u2014 for example, A before B compared to B before A \u2014 then compare the these orders to see if one works better. It\u2019s like testing different ingredients in a recipe to find out which ones make it taste best before serving the final dish. This approach helps <strong>make treatments more effective and efficient,<\/strong> and easier to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color has-large-font-size wp-elements-b088c579f0e385059b22a74dda1367fb\" style=\"color:#154734\">More Than the Sum of Its Parts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video height=\"720\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1280 \/ 720;\" width=\"1280\" autoplay controls loop muted src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/files\/2025\/11\/iStock-1298364282.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:16px\"><strong>Emergence<\/strong> is the idea that when many small parts interact with each other, something new and more complex can appear that isn\u2019t obvious from looking at the parts alone. For example, a single bird doesn\u2019t form a flock, but when hundreds of birds fly together, patterns and movements \u201cemerge\u201d that no one bird controls. In simple terms,<strong> <\/strong>emergence means <strong>the whole is greater than the sum of its parts<\/strong>, and new patterns or behaviors appear that can\u2019t 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 \u2014 biological, psychological, social, and situational \u2014 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\u2019t be predicted by any one symptom or event. It\u2019s the <strong>pattern of interactions<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color has-large-font-size wp-elements-bd95057daaafd3c9c4c34b5b8fc4ea49\" style=\"color:#154734;font-style:normal;font-weight:100\">Flipping Coins<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:16px\">Many of our studies use <strong>randomization<\/strong>. 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 <strong>fair and similar at the start<\/strong> of the study. When groups are similar, we can be more confident that any differences at the end \u2014 like who got better or recovered faster \u2014 are caused by the treatment itself, not by something else. Randomization helps make our research <strong>fair, unbiased, and trustworthy<\/strong>, so we can know what really works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/approach\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Our Approach&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10435,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-32","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/strengthens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}