For a deeper look at the state of mental health services for children in Illinois as part of WBEZ’s new series, Out of the Shadows, Eight Forty-Eight turned to two experts: Barbara Shaw chaired the task force that resulted in the Children’s Mental Health Act of 2003 and Mark Heyrman, who specializes in the rights of the mentally disabled.

Shaw is currently director of the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority, the state agency is in charge of public health and public safety approaches to violence prevention in Illinois. In 1988, Heyrman served as executive director of the Governor’s Commission to Revise the Mental Health Code of Illinois.

Out of the Shadows will explore the fractures in mental health care for children in Illinois and illuminate how it affects our youth.

The conversations looked at legislative and societal efforts in place to help mentally ill children in Illinois. Shaw and Heyrman spoke about what Illinois has done right, what it’s done wrong and what prevents the state from doing things better.

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