Rails - May 2009 - forcing onChange in a partial

I have a partial view which incorporates on onChange option in a form.
It works great when I actually change the select box which it is an
option to. However, when the div which contains this partial first
shows, the onChange doesn;t fire. How can I force this to fire when it
is first shown? Thanks Janna B,

<%= f.label :country %><br />
  <%= f.country_select :country, Carmen.default_country, {},
    {
      :onChange => remote_function( :url => { :action =>
''_get_states'' }, :update => "state", :with =>
"''country='' +value")
    } %>