Cook County officials flag sudden CDC grant cut; discuss suicide-prevention trainings

Cook County public-health staff told the Cook County Public Health Human Services Board on April 15 that a CDC grant used for pandemic preparedness and recovery work was terminated abruptly in late March, removing roughly $33,000 from planned activities and staff time.

Grace, a county public-health staff member, said the grant “began during the pandemic. So, the grant period began in 2021. And the grant was scheduled to, sunset in the March 2026.” She told the board the termination was sudden: “we were to immediately stop work effective the next day.”

Board members and staff said the funding had been covering staff time related to infectious disease coordination with the state and regional partners and planned community recovery projects. Grace said other funding sources may cover core infectious-disease duties but the community-wide recovery projects tied to the CDC money will not proceed as planned.

The report prompted a broader discussion of suicide rates and prevention. Grace summarized a longer-term rate analysis provided by the state: “the rate in our county is 13 per 100,000 people,” compared with a state rate of 11.7 per 100,000 over a 20-year period, which she said helps control for small-population volatility.

Commissioner Campbell and others pressed for context in interpreting county numbers, noting visitor populations and destination sites can skew local per-capita figures. Commissioners emphasized the need to understand drivers before adopting large-scale responses.

Staff described immediate and upcoming prevention steps. Grace said the county will offer Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) training to county staff during May (Mental Health Awareness Month) and is arranging a two-day Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASSIST) with Grand Portage Human Services for staff who work closely with the public. Grace characterized the local work as spanning prevention, intervention and upstream efforts to build protective factors.

Board members also discussed media impacts on suicide trends and demographic patterns raised in the medical consultant’s report, including higher risk among certain groups. Commissioners called for substantive, evidence-based responses rather than symbolic actions.

The county will publish details about QPR and other trainings in the county newsletter and continue monitoring both grant opportunities and local suicide data; staff noted the abrupt CDC cut requires re-evaluating planned projects that relied on that funding.