Corlan Foundation for Mental Illness
The idea
In memory of Corlan, a foundation built to help families see what professionals miss, before it's too late.
The problem
Suicide doesn't announce itself with clinical clarity. It whispers – in behavior changes, in withdrawal, in words that sound like nothing until they mean everything. Families live closest to the person, but nobody trains them to recognize what they're seeing. Mental health professionals see patients for an hour a week. Families see them every day. That gap costs lives. Corlan took his own life. He was brilliant – a master's graduate in psychology, posthumously, working on brain scanning techniques to identify neurological precursors to suicide in veterans. He knew more about this than most. And we still lost him. If his own family had known what to look for, what to say, when to act — maybe the story ends differently. We'll never know. But the next family might.
The solution
The Corlan Foundation wants to train families. Not replace professionals, to work alongside them. We will develop practical, accessible programs that teach parents, spouses, siblings, and children how to detect early warning signs, how to have the conversations that matter, and how to connect their loved one to the right help before a crisis becomes a tragedy. We also intend to continue Corlan's own research – brain scanning techniques that may one day give families and clinicians an objective, early signal that someone is at risk.
How it’s funded
Federal, state, and county grants. Philanthropy. Partnerships with veterans organizations and mental health institutions.
Who it’s for
Families of people at risk — especially veterans and their loved ones. And the researchers, clinicians, educators, and advocates who want to build something that actually reaches people where they live.
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