The Legislation intended:

* to bestow the full benefits of our society for those who suffer from mental disabilities to prevent the occurrence of mental illness and mental retardation wherever and whenever possible.

* to provide for early diagnosis and continuous and comprehensive care in the community of those suffering from these disorders.

* to stimulate improvements in the level of care given the mentally disabled in our state and private institutions and to reorient those programs to a community centered approach 4. to reduce over a number of years and by hundreds of thousands the persons confined to these institutions.

* to retain in and return to the community the mentally ill and the mentally retarded and there to restore and revitalize their lives through better health programs and strengthened educational programs and rehabilitation services.

* to reinforce the will and capacity of our communities to meet these problems in order that the communities in turn can reinforce the will and capacity of individuals and individual families (National Conference on Social Welfare, 1975, p.2)