County funding of mental health services in a rural state

Relationships between funding for mental illness in Iowa counties and county wealth, political activism, need for public services, rural culture, and policy makers' attitudes were examined. Counties with fewer people, lower proportions of persons with college education, higher proportions of rural and elderly residents, higher rates of poverty, and a higher proportion of income from farms spent less money on mental health services. Regression analysis indicated that the size of the county population and the proportion of persons receiving Medicaid funds explained 96 percent of the variation between county budgets.