Gov. Bob Taft acknowledges that Ohio's mental health system doesn't work for thousands of families. He says that forcing parents to give up custody of their children so they can get treatment for mental illness is "a terrible problem, something that shouldn't be happening."

The governor also says he's surprised that the state doesn't track the number of parents who've had to give up their kids. "We should have documented that for sure," Taft says. "That's valuable information."

Still, he says, Ohio is too broke to do much more than it already does to untangle conflicting bureaucracies and make financial help available to families.

"We've been hampered by the lack of resources," Taft says. "It's very frustrating, but it's a reality."