(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness or NAMI (NAH-mee) is holding its annual conference later this week. Executive director Peggy Huppert says the state continues to lag behind the rest of the nation in providing mental health services, largely because of workforce issues. “Unfortunately, we continue to rank near the bottom in a lot of areas, including the number of state psychiatric beds, and the number of psychiatrists, the number of psychologists,” according to Huppert.

Huppert says there have been positive developments in the past year, including the state putting in place a mental health system for children. She says Iowa now needs to find a way to adequately fund it.  “Are they going to allow counties to levy what they need to pay for what is required. If not, how are we going to pay for it? The Legislature needs to grapple with that,” she says.

The conference this week will include perspectives from law enforcement, a pediatrician and a former star athlete who has been diagnosed as bipolar.