Keep 988 visible.
When someone is struggling, the path to support should be obvious. This page keeps 988 within reach.
Suicide prevention • public education • community action
Research should become something people can use.
Dean Corso's work with PROSPER began with a hard question: how can suicide prevention protect safety while preserving dignity, trust, and connection? This page brings that work forward through 988 awareness, community education, and clear information young people and families can use.
What this page is built to do.
Good information should not stay buried in a paper. The goal is to make the next helpful step easier to find, easier to understand, and easier to share.
Make research readable.
Complex topics become useful when they are translated into plain, careful language.
Bring prevention outside the clinic.
Sports fields, schools, families, and community events can all become places where prevention is normal to discuss.
Protect dignity and trust.
The central question is not only how to respond to crisis, but how to respond without losing connection.
Meet Dean
The work starts with listening to the evidence.
Dean's PROSPER experience connected literature review, ethics, public communication, community outreach, and policy correspondence. The work centers on suicide prevention, medical ethics, youth mental health, public policy, community health, and person-centered care.
Instead of treating research as an endpoint, this page uses the research as a starting point for clearer public education and practical next steps.
Medical Ethics
Public Policy
Community Health
Research Communication
Person-Centered Care
From work completed to work underway
Dean has contributed to research writing, outreach materials, webpage development, legislative correspondence, community engagement, and presentation preparation. The next step is to turn those pieces into a public-facing resource that can grow over time.
- Research summaries and issue briefs
- Educational webpages and public-facing resources
- Community event reflections and photographs
- Presentation materials and future updates
Dean's Research
The full research page is intentionally unfinished for now. This section holds the direction of the work while the final literature review, issue briefs, and presentation materials are added.
Current focus
Harms of Hospitalization in Suicidality
This project examines how hospitalization may affect people experiencing suicidal crises while exploring trauma-informed, person-centered, and rights-respecting approaches to care.
The work asks how safety-focused systems can protect life while also protecting trust, autonomy, dignity, and the therapeutic relationship.
Therapeutic allianceHow trust between a person and provider affects future help-seeking.
Coercion and autonomyHow involuntary or precautionary admissions can affect dignity and engagement.
Trauma-informed careHow crisis response can reduce avoidable harm while supporting safety.
Recovery-oriented systemsHow care can protect connection, hope, and long-term participation in treatment.
Literature review direction
The literature review looks at empirical and conceptual work on potential iatrogenic effects of hospitalization, including trauma, stigma, loss of trust, patient outcomes, ethical decision-making, crisis intervention, and long-term disengagement from care. The purpose is not to dismiss hospitalization. It is to better understand when hospitalization helps, when it may create unintended consequences, and how systems can improve.
When does hospitalization help most?
How can crisis care preserve dignity?
What creates trust between patients and providers?
How do people experience involuntary treatment?
What makes someone willing to seek help again?
How should ethics guide suicide prevention?
How can communities reduce suicide stigma?
What role does connectedness play in recovery?
Community in action
A field became a place for prevention.
Dean played a key role in the inaugural LaCROSSe Out Violence & Suicide event, held August 8–9 at the Casper Soccer Complex. The weekend brought together upwards of 250 young people for lacrosse clinics, a youth tournament, and critical mental health education.
The event showed how movement, teamwork, and trusted community spaces can open the door to conversations about stress, relationships, resilience, stigma, and help-seeking.
250+young people reached
2days of clinics and education
14local resource organizations
- Lacrosse clinics and youth tournament
- Mental health workshops and resource booths
- Stress management, healthy relationships, anger management, social media navigation, and suicide prevention
Need help today?
Call, text, or chat 988.
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available day and night for people facing emotional distress, suicidal thoughts, mental health struggles, substance use concerns, or moments when they simply need someone to talk to. Conversations are free and confidential.
Research that reaches policy
Evidence should inform public decisions.
As part of this work, Dean wrote to Senator Tim Kaine about youth mental health and suicide prevention. The response highlighted federal priorities connected to early intervention, peer support, behavioral health workforce development, suicide prevention funding, and expanding awareness of the 988 Lifeline.
The correspondence also pointed to current legislative efforts, including the EARLY Minds Act and the PEER Support Act, as examples of how mental health policy can focus on earlier support, lived experience, and access to care.
What the work produces.
The goal is to turn research and experience into resources people can actually read, share, and use.
Research summaries
Short, evidence-based explanations of complex suicide prevention topics.
Educational webpages
Issue-based pages that make research clearer for families, schools, and communities.
Community materials
Outreach content that connects people to prevention resources and support.
Presentation materials
Future slides and talking points for professional and community audiences.
Publication note
Training First Responders in Suicide De-escalation and Self-Management — Dean is listed as a contributor on this manuscript, currently in development. His role connects to background literature, evidence review, ethics discussion, and research synthesis.
From research to action.
This path shows the progression from learning the evidence to building public-facing work that can continue to grow.
Research direction
Selected a focus on ethical dimensions of hospitalization in suicidality.
Literature review
Examined trauma, coercion, stigma, trust, autonomy, and engagement.
Community outreach
Helped bring prevention education into a youth-centered community event.
Policy correspondence
Connected youth mental health concerns to public policy conversation.
Public communication
Developing webpages, summaries, and outreach materials for broader audiences.
Next work
Adding the research page, issue briefs, welcome video, and presentations.