Governor Gretchen Whitmer announcing a $1.2 million investment in veteran suicide prevention programs that will aim to improve the health and well-being of Michigan’s more than half a million military veterans and their families.

The Governors office says this represent the largest investment in veteran suicide prevention outreach since at least the year 2000, and likely the largest in Michigan history.

According to the latest available data from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs 704 Michigan Veterans died by suicide between 2016 and 2019, an average of 176 per year.