Cheyenne Regional Medical Center has received a $900,492 grant from the Wyoming Department of Health to address suicide and substance abuse prevention efforts in Laramie County.

"We have two staff members that we're hiring on as CRMC employees to administer the grant," said Amy Speiker, Director of Community Health and Analysis. "More than half of the dollars though are going out to the community."

Speiker says $80,000 will go to Grace for 2 Brothers, a local group working on suicide prevention.

"Over the last 10 years, Laramie County has had 22.7 deaths per 100,000," said Speiker. "Just to give some perspective on that, when we look at the same period in the United States that's 12.9 per 100,000 people died by suicide."

"Another place that we have an opportunity to improve is in our smoking rates," she added. "In Laramie County about 21.5 percent of adults are smokers and that compares to just 17 percent nationally."

Speiker says the grant, which runs through June 2020, will allow community partners to work together to identify evidence-based strategies to address these problems and put those strategies into action.

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