About SafeSide
Our Partners, Values, and Team
SafeSide provides...
SafeSide Prevention provides leadership consultation and workforce education for health, mental health, educational, and governmental organizations seeking to unite and inspire their mental health and primary care workforces to prevent suicide. We provide a framework, tools, templates, training, and data to strengthen organizational cultures for safety and prevention; promote best practices, policies, and pathways; and support your workforce with fresh, engaging ongoing education and development. Our flexible programs can be customized to support your specific goals, populations, and organizational needs.
SafeSide serves...
SafeSide serves organizations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. SafeSide Australia has partnered with the State of New South Wales Toward Zero Suicide Initiative to train mental health teams statewide and with the Department of Veteran Affairs (Open Arms - Veterans & Families Counseling) to implement and deeply embed the SafeSide Framework in services nationwide. In the US, SafeSide has partnered with the State of Utah, the South Carolina Department of Social Services, and with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to disseminate primary care training through local chapters in all 50 states.
Core Values
More than Safety
Safety is essential, but not the final goal. We'll help you meet patient safety goals and regulations, but we aim higher: toward recovery, health, and happiness.
Better Together: Clinical and Lived Experience
All SafeSide educational programs are co-led by a suicide prevention expert and instructors with diverse lived experience.
Measure Your Impact
SafeSide training grew out of programs and studies conducted by Dr. Tony Pisani at the University of Rochester. Research on the approach is ongoing. We suggest metrics and provide data to assist our subscribers in measuring their impact and progress.
Healthy Team
We prioritize the health, prosperity, and connectedness of our team, so our partnership with you will be warm, productive, and uplifting.
Meliora
Meliora (“always better!”) is the motto of the University of Rochester and a core value of SafeSide Prevention. We offer subscriptions, ongoing contact, and continually updated materials to keep up with advances in the field and to respond to feedback and requests from our subscriber community.
SafeSide Prevention ascribes to the Aeschi Guidelines for care of patients at risk for suicide.
The SafeSide Team
Caitlin Brandt
Caitlin is a project coordination wiz who previously helped to scale an award-winning online mental health service. Caitlin brings people and workflows together at SafeSide to create an efficient, happy, and frictionless experience for our team and yours.
Pedro Centeno, PhD
Clinical psychology + film/video production + massive creativity makes Pedro the perfect fit for producing powerful media to drive SafeSide programs and communications.
Phil Chapados
SafeSide powers workforce education through technology, creativity, and human connection. Drawing on his experience as a CTO in tech manufacturing, Phil keeps SafeSide thinking ahead, leveraging technology innovation toward the goal of zero suicide.
Mel Clark
Mel brings a professional balance of compassion, empathy, and determination to her work. A long-time advocate for the well-being of others, she has an enduring commitment to all things “family” and helps shine a light on the importance of support networks for safety and recovery.
Read more about Mel's story.
Valeria Cuellar
Valeria studied medicine with just one goal in mind: working on the promotion of mental wellbeing. At SafeSide, Valeria combines her expertise in mental health and her experience coordinating leading edge research to help our partners implement and evaluate their suicide prevention efforts.
Sarah Donovan, PsyD
Sarah led a successful rollout of SafeSide as Director of Evidence-Based Practice in a large youth services organization. She liked it so much, she joined our team! Now Sarah wakes up each day thinking of new ways to leverage implementation science to support the transfer of learning to practice and outcomes.
Sam Fewings
Sam spent twenty years working in Human Resources and Insurance before dedicating himself to suicide prevention as an advisor and facilitator. Sam has lived experience of suicide and is passionate about stigma reduction and giving a voice to others with lived experience.
Alida Merrill, MPH, MSMFT, BSN
Alida’s experience in both clinical practice and strategic leadership helps her to balance the needs of clinicians with those of the organizations they work within. Keen to devote her skills to a meaningful mission, Alida is dedicated to the delivery of SafeSide’s strategy for increasing our impact in healthcare systems.
Dan Mobbs
Before coming to SafeSide, Dan spent two decades working as a social worker and clinical educator across health, counselling and suicide prevention services. Dan is a social worker and clinical educator who is passionate about improving care for people with suicide concerns. He now channels this passion into ensuring that SafeSide’s programs fit the settings, populations and cultures they serve.
Kristina Mossgraber
A gifted teacher dedicated to helping people see the many reasons they have for living. She keeps the team thinking about what patients experience in the health and behavioral health care system.
Read more about Kristina's story.
Dan Murrie, PhD
A University of Virginia forensic psychologist who lends his violence prevention expertise to our programs. Dan and Tony are research and thinking partners for SafeSide’s risk formulation model.
Tony Pisani, PhD
Primary care psychologist, family therapist, and suicide prevention researcher at the University of Rochester Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide. Tony spent 10 years developing and road-testing the SafeSide framework and educational methods.
Learn more about why he founded SafeSide and his academic work.
Paul Scade, PhD
Paul has spent 20 years in the writing trade, first as an academic historian and then as a professional writer and editor. Paul is committed to the SafeSide mission and works across the organization to communicate SafeSide’s values, work, and research.
Tim Sheehan
Tim’s skills in technical services have been honed during a career spanning more than 30 years in tech. A leader who knows systems inside and out, Tim makes the complex look easy.
Mary Sheridan
With over 25 years in various marketing roles, Mary excels in timely managing projects, programs and events from conception to completion without a hitch. To Mary, it’s not just about the task, but about the message delivered and the industry relationships built while promoting the value that SafeSide brings to our clients.
Jamie Thompson
Jamie joined SafeSide in 2023 as the inaugural General Manager for Australia. As a psychologist with 18 years’ experience in suicide prevention and related fields, and 11 years’ experience in management roles, Jamie brings the expertise, passion, and knowledge needed to deliver SafeSide’s goals at scale.
Miguel Valdez
Bold design from a humble soul. Miguel makes our work pop and contributes a steady "I'll take care of it" spirit to our team.
Ann Wood
Ann brings decades of experience in the corporate world helping global organizations succeed with major software implementations. Wanting to make a difference in suicide prevention, Ann now applies her talents to making sure our subscriber organizations have a clear path to success with the SafeSide Framework and training programs.
Work With Us
