BOSTON - Gloucester's Krissie Burnham said her 17-year-old son has been hospitalized in psychiatric institutions "too many times to count."

Her son is bipolar and suffers anxiety and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders. But for Burnham the real battle has been with the state's mental health care system for services since her son was 2.

"I had to go to one avenue to get to the other," Burnham said, who now advises hundreds of other North of Boston families in similar situations. "I've worked through and lived through the system." She then corrects herself by saying, "Systems: It should be plural."

A member of the Parent/Professional Advocacy League, Burnham was among the family members, organizations and advocacy groups who traveled to the Statehouse yesterday to support a campaign to overhaul the state's mental health care services.

She was joined by advocates from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Children's Hospital Boston and Health Care for All, who want to see mental health care services unified under a new department within the governor's office that would provide better communication and collaboration over mental health among all state agencies.

Senate Majority Leader Frederick Berry, D-Peabody, called this a new step in the reform of the state's health care system and criticized Gov. Mitt Romney's budget cuts of $1 million affecting children's mental health providers.

"I thought (the laws under which Romney made the cuts) was a tool to be used in emergency situations," Berry said at a Statehouse news conference. "I honestly don't see the emergency."

Berry, along with Rep. Theodore C. Speliotis, D-Danvers, and a dozen other state legislators showed up yesterday for the rally, raising expectations among organizers who are looking for legislators to co-sponsor the bills they plan to draft and present to the next Legislature.

John McDonough, executive director of Health Care for All, said the next step was getting the legislation written and filed before the Jan. 10 deadline.

"We need to get as many sponsors as we can among the legislators," McDonough said.

McDonough said advocates would focus on prevention and early detection of mental illness. He said a third goal would be "to improve the system so that kids don't end stuck without services."

Marylou Sudders, president and CEO of MSPCC, said that she expected the new administration and the legislature to support the proposals. She is co-chairwoman of Gov.-elect Deval Patrick's human services working group.

"We are hopeful that many of the recommendations would be accepted within the new administration," Sudders said. "It's a new day."

Other recommendations in the report released yesterday by MSPCC and Children's Hospital include ensuring that all insurance companies reimburse families for screening and prevention services, the passage of mental health parity legislation, and better access to mental health care for youth in the state juvenile justice system.

David Matteodo, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems, said the principles were hard not to agree with. But he said he expected to hear more about the shortage of in-patient beds in the state's hospitals.

"On a given day, more than 60 children may need to be discharged without having a place to go," Matteodo said.