Mid-Maine Behavioral Health is a Kennebec and Somerset county group founded on providing quality regional care for people with mental illness and substance abuse issues.

Our group understands the eagerness of Maine Mental Health Partners to expand its own business model (Morning Sentinel, Kennebec Journal, Portland Press Herald editorial, Oct. 17) in its region because regional approaches to health care often work best for those who need care.

But our central Maine group, comprised of six local organizations, is another successful model to note.

It is a network based on mutuality, collaboration and self-governance in which each participant health-care provider may remain true to its locality and mission.

Our network members offer community-specific support and services driven by local board members, staff, families, clients and other local decision-makers. Our provisions of care are investments in the very communities in which we live.

Our model works. Because of our network, our organizations work to identify and share efficiencies, collaborate with staff and services, and share the common belief, always, in community-based health care solutions.

Because of our autonomy, we can adapt quickly to new needs and methods of care, and as a network we can offer our patients the widest array of behavioral support and services locally.

Our goal, after all, is to individualize, not systematize, health care.