Brain health should make people feel supported — not alone. But right now, too many Iowans are navigating anxiety, trauma, addiction, and depression in a system where help depends on your ZIP code, your insurance card, or whether your county can afford to keep a program running. Families in District 71 deserve better than a mental-health structure that has been reorganized, underfunded, and stretched thin. Access to behavioral health care should spark healing, stability, and dignity — not crisis.

Iowa’s local mental-health regions have been repeatedly restructured and underfunded at the state level, leaving schools, counties, and nonprofits scrambling to fill the gaps. Yet even with these challenges, we can see what works when our community invests early. A new collaboration between Mindful Minutes for Schools and Challenge to Change is bringing mindfulness-based education to eastern Iowa classrooms, giving students practical tools to manage stress, calm their nervous systems, and build emotional resilience (KWQC, 2024). When we support children’s brain health from the start, we don’t just reduce behavioral issues — we strengthen learning, improve school climate, and build healthier communities for decades.

Spark the Truth: What the Numbers Show

The truth is urgent: Iowa is deep in a behavioral-health crisis — and the data proves it.

Dubuque County spent $27,000 on 818 naloxone doses this year alone to prevent overdose deaths, expanding community access because the need has grown so sharply (Turnbough, 2025). The county acted because it had to. But counties shouldn’t be carrying this burden alone.

Fentanyl’s toll is staggering. Iowa lost an estimated $2.2 billion in economic value in 2024 due to fentanyl-related deaths, hospitalizations, and reduced workforce participation (Common Sense Institute, 2025). These aren’t just numbers — they represent parents, young people, workers, and neighbors whose lives could have been saved with better prevention and stronger state-level support.

And the cost of state inaction shows up everywhere. When mental-health regions lack the funding to sustain crisis response teams, families turn to emergency rooms. When people can’t access therapy or addiction treatment quickly, they fall deeper into homelessness, unemployment, and legal trouble. When schools don’t have the staff or support for mental wellness programs, teachers absorb the weight — and students suffer. Behavioral health isn’t a side issue. It touches everything.

Spark Our Future: What This Means for District 71

District 71 feels the cracks in the system in ways lawmakers in Des Moines rarely see.

In the North End and throughout Dubuque, families face higher rates of trauma, economic strain, and housing instability — all of which intensify mental-health needs. Schools rely on programs like Mindful Minutes because many kids carry emotional weight before they even reach the classroom. Parents working multiple jobs struggle to find appointments, transportation, or affordable care. And when substance-use support is scarce, overdoses ripple through entire neighborhoods, leaving families grieving, children without parents, and employers without workers.

Dubuque County’s decision to independently purchase naloxone wasn’t a luxury — it was survival. But no county can sustain that alone. When state support dries up, the communities with the highest need — including Black, immigrant, and low-income families in District 71 — fall through the cracks.

Reinforcing behavioral health in District 71 isn’t just about counseling or drug treatment. It’s about whether people can stay safe, stay housed, stay working, and stay alive.

Ignite the Path Forward

To truly reinforce behavioral-health services in Iowa, we must build a system centered on people — not politics — and strong enough to meet the scale of the crisis.

I will fight to:

• Fully restore and strengthen Iowa’s mental-health regions so families receive care based on need — not local budget strain.
• Expand school-based wellness programs, including Mindful Minutes and Challenge to Change, so students learn healthy coping skills early.
• Increase state funding for crisis services, mobile response teams, and 24/7 stabilization centers.
• Invest in community-based addiction treatment and recovery supports that meet people where they are.
• Expand access to naloxone statewide and ensure counties aren’t left to purchase lifesaving tools by themselves.
• Build strong harm-reduction networks that prevent deaths and connect people to long-term recovery.
• Strengthen partnerships with clinics, social-service agencies, and local governments so families get coordinated care, not closed doors.

Behavioral health should spark hope — not heartbreak. It should spark healing — not survival. And above all, it should spark the belief that every Iowan, in every community, deserves a fair chance at stability, safety, and recovery.

District 71 deserves a behavioral-health system that honors our families, protects our children, and ensures no one is left behind.

References

Common Sense Institute. (2025). Iowa’s decade-long fight with fentanyl and its economic toll.https://www.commonsenseinstituteus.org/iowa/research/housing-and-our-community/iowas-decade-long-fight-with-fentanyl-and-its-economic-toll

KWQC. (2024, February 7). Mental health collaboration brings mindful education to area schools.https://www.kwqc.com/2024/02/07/mental-health-collaboration-brings-mindful-education-area-schools/

Turnbough, K. (2025, March 31). Dubuque County spends $27K on 818 doses of Narcan, expands access to life-saving medication. KCRG. https://www.kcrg.com/2025/03/31/dubuque-county-spends-27k-on-818-doses-narcan-expands-access-life-saving-medication/