Making a Case for the Geel Model: The American Experience with Family Care for Mental Patients

Abstract

The historic colony for the mentally afflicted in Geel, Belgium is often cited as a unique example of integrating patients into the community. However, scholarly work on Geel largely ignores the history of similar programs that existed in the United States. This study will look into the practice of family care modeled after the Geel program in the 19th and 20th century US. The importance of this research is twofold: it shows that the program is not new for the American context while at the same time it informs about the logistics involved in initiating and running family care programs in the US milieu. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]