After the Iowa Legislature’s first funnel week of the 2022 session four bills are alive that seek to increase the capacity of Iowa’s mental health system.

These bills would establish a state-funded psychiatric residency program establishing 12 positions each year with preference given to those who live in or completed their undergraduate degree or medical school in Iowa, would establish a loan repayment program for psychiatrists, nurse practitioners and some therapists if they agree to stay in Iowa for five years, would increase the number of beds at the state’s two mental health institutes, and establish a higher rate of payment through Medicaid for patients with more complex mental health needs.

Washington and Louisa County Mental Health and Disability Services Director Bobbie Wulf believes the loan repayment bill would be a great benefit to the state’s mental health and disability regions including Southeast Iowa Link, “SEIL has been attempting to expand services and due to workforce shortages that we have all encountered that has been the number one concern with the mental health providers and the ability to expand services, just not having that capacity to build programs that require the certifications that are required to instill those programs.”

While Wulf mentions that SEIL is not funded through Medicaid she says the increased reimbursement bill could help providers that struggle to maintain staff and benefit the area as a whole. SEIL and the rest of Iowa’s mental health regions are also in a year of transition as Governor Kim Reynolds signed a tax package into law last year that changes funding for Iowa’s mental health system from property taxes to the state’s general fund, taking effect July 1st.