Geel, Belgium A Model of "Community Recovery"

This message appeared on the PSYTEACH list and may be of interest:
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Dear Colleagues,
Those of you who teach courses dealing with mental illness or history of
psychology will be interested in a new website produced by my colleague,
Jackie Goldstein, on the city of Geel, Belgium, which has a 700 year old
community-based system for caring for people with mental illness. If you
are unfamiliar with Geel, I think you will find both the system and its
history of great interest. The system, founded on the legend of St.
Dymphna, presents an approach where the citizens accept, support and
integrate people with mental illness into the community. It presents an
interesting alternative to the medical model of treatment, and
stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness.

The website is a good teaching resource for instructors and for students
doing research in the area of mental illness.

Jackie has been doing research on Geel for a number of years and has
produced the website in response to enquiries about the system. She
would welcome feedback about the site. Her e-mail address can be found
there. The website is

http://faculty.samford.edu/~jlgoldst/

Stephen L. Chew, PhD
Professor and Chair
Dept. of Psychology
Samford University
Birmingham, AL 35229-2308