State Representative Ellen Story, a tried-and-true progressive from Amherst, has long considered the state’s collapsing system of mental-health services for children a travesty (see "Disorderly Conduct," News and Features, July 7, 2000). Last year, she set out to tackle the problem head-on when she filed a bill to establish a children’s-mental-health commission under the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS). She later convinced colleagues to include her provision in the one piece of legislation guaranteed to pass every year: the budget.

"I wasn’t confident that the bill would pass," explains Story, a prominent House dissident who often bumps up against House Speaker Tom Finneran. "I wanted a sure way for the bill to pass, rather than a gamble on whether the Speaker would ever hear it."

Her labors have finally borne fruit. This week, Story announced the formation of the EOHHS’s children’s-mental-health commission, which will include state officials, advocates, physicians, and psychiatrists, among others. Professional organizations are submitting names of nominees to serve on the commission to EOHHS secretary Robert Gittens, who is expected to appoint some 15 members any day now.

By all accounts, the commission is viewed as a much-needed "first step" toward solving the complex and varied problems that plague the state’s mental-health system for children and adolescents. "Everyone knows mental health is a mess," Story says, "but no one knows the particulars."

That’s because myriad state agencies — from the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Youth Services to the Department of Social Services — currently offer programs for mentally ill kids. Since each agency has its own jurisdiction, no one has examined the overall quality of care.

Which, of course, is where the children’s-mental-health commission comes in. The group is charged with gathering data from state agencies on how many children are receiving services, and how many aren’t. Members will determine, for instance, how many kids are languishing in emergency rooms because there aren’t enough psychiatric beds. Or how many teens are forced to wait in hospitals because residential placements are in short supply. In other words, the commission will track down statistics documenting just how the system has failed people. Every three months, it must report its findings to the House and Senate’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means, which will make the information public.

So while the commission may sound modest at first blush, Story believes it will hold the key to a revolution in children’s mental-health care. Its work, after all, will do more than turn up individual horror stories; the commission will gather hard, cold facts to give form to the torrent of anecdotal evidence out there. Says Story, "With the findings of this commission, we can begin to change the fact that we do so poorly by our mentally ill children. I’d say the sooner, the better."