Section 41.01. Declaration of purpose

This  article is designed to enable and encourage local governments to
  develop in  the  community  preventive,  rehabilitative,  and  treatment
  services  offering continuity of care; to improve and to expand existing
  community programs for the mentally ill, the mentally retarded  and  the
  developmentally  disabled,  and  those  suffering  from  the diseases of
  alcoholism and substance abuse; to plan for the integration of community
  and state services and facilities for  the  mentally  disabled;  and  to
  cooperate  with  other  local  governments  and  with  the  state in the
  provision of joint services and sharing of manpower resources.
    In order to further the development, for each community in this state,
  of a unified system for the delivery  of  such  services,  this  article
  gives to a local governmental unit the opportunity to participate in the
  state-local  development of such services by means of a unified services
  plan. Such a plan is designed to be a mechanism whereby the  department,
  department  facilities,  and  local  government can jointly plan for and
  deliver unified services to meet the needs  of  the  consumers  of  such
  services.  The  unified  services system will strengthen state and local
  partnership in the determination of the need for and the  allocation  of
  services  and  more easily provide for the most effective and economical
  utilization of new and existing state, local governmental,  and  private
  resources  to  provide  services.  A  uniform  ratio  of state and local
  government  responsibility  for  financing  services  under  a   unified
  services  plan  is  established  by this article to eliminate having the
  types of services provided in a community be  determined  by  the  local
  government's  share  of the cost of a particular program rather than the
  needs of the community.
    It  requires  the  direction  and  administration,   by   each   local
  governmental  unit,  of  a  local comprehensive planning process for its
  geographic area in which all providers of services shall participate and
  cooperate in  the  provision  of  all  necessary  information.  It  also
  initiates  a  planning effort involving the state, local governments and
  other providers of service for the purpose of  promoting  continuity  of
  care through the development of integrated systems of care and treatment
  for  the  mentally  ill, mentally retarded and developmentally disabled,
  and for those suffering from the diseases of  alcoholism  and  substance
  abuse.