Indiana’s state health agency has won a $1.4 million federal grant to help it conduct an in-depth analysis of the factors behind homicides and suicides in the state.
The five-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will allow the State Department of Health to gather critical data on Indiana’s violent deaths using the National Violent Death Reporting System.
That online system helps state and local officials understand when and how violent deaths occur by linking data from law enforcement, coroners and medical examiners, vital statistics and crime laboratories.
Indiana had 1,456 violent deaths in 2012, of which nearly 64 percent were suicides and 23 percent were homicides.
State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams says that “to stop violent deaths, we must first understand all the facts.”