OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The Oklahoma State Department of Health will receive $1.15 million during the next five years to gather data on homicides and suicides in an effort to prevent those deaths.
The funding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will allow the department to use the National Violent Death Reporting System that helps officials understand when and how violent deaths occur. The system links data from coroners and medical examiners; vital statistics; and law enforcement records.
Health department Injury Prevention Service director Sheryll Brown says knowing the circumstances of violent deaths will help identify where efforts to prevent the deaths should be focused.
The data will include geographic distribution and trends in violence in Oklahoma, intimate partner homicides, gang-related homicides, veteran suicides and youth suicide.
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