Mental Health Planning Council

The Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council (MHPC) is a group created in response to a federal law passed in 1986 that required states to develop plans for a comprehensive community-based mental health service for individuals with serious mental illness in order to receive federal Mental Health Block Grant funds.  (See 42 U.S.C. Sec. 300x-1).

Federal law also requires that mental health consumers, family members, parents of children with serious emotional or behavioral disturbances, and other stakeholders must be involved in the state’s planning efforts by participating as members of the Planning Council.  Other stakeholders in the planning process include representatives from state agencies that provide mental health, education, vocational rehabilitation, criminal justice, housing, social, and Medicaid services, as well as other public agencies and private organizations that are concerned or involved in mental health and related support services.

The central purpose of the Iowa Mental Health Planning Council is to meaningfully involve consumers and other concerned citizens in planning and evaluating the mental health service delivery in our state. The Planning Council:

  • Reviews Iowa’s Community Mental Health Block Grant plans and makes recommendations to the Department of Human Services, which is responsible for the development of the plan as Iowa’s State Mental Health Authority.  
  • Monitors, reviews and evaluates all mental health services throughout the state, not less than once a year, and provides feedback on the allocation and adequacy of the services.
  • Serves as an advocate for adults with serious mental illnesses, children with serious emotional disturbances, and other individuals with mental illnesses or emotional problems.

The state is required to submit an application every year to continue to receive federal Community Mental Health Block Grant funds.  This application is the State’s Mental Health Plan.  The objective of the state’s plan is to support the creation and expansion of comprehensive, community-based systems of care for adults with mental illness and children with emotional disturbances.

The MHPC is the primary advisory body to the State Mental Health Authority, DHS, with regard to development of this annual plan and in determining how the federal Community Mental Health Block Grant funds are spent in Iowa.


For more information contact:

Mary Mohrhauser
Child & Youth Specialist
Iowa Department of Human Services
Hoover State Office Bldg. 5th Floor
Mental Health and Disabilities Services Division
Des Moines, IA  50319
Phone: 515-242-6845
e-mail: mmohrha@dhs.state.ia.us
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