Gheel

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven — Matthew 5:3

Saint Dymphna, an Irish princess, fled to Flanders (Belgium) after her deranged father pursued her sexually. Sniffing her tracks by the Irish coins she spent along the way, he and his henchmen caught up with her in the town of Geel, not far from Antwerp. After struggling to preserve her chastity, she suffered a bloody demise typical of medieval virgin martyrs, and her body was buried in a church named in her honor.

From an early date, the mentally ill, came to Geel to seek cures. In Geel, people welcomed strangers with mental illness into their homes. The Saint Dymphna Church was built around her remains, and in time, that church became a pilgrimage site for people seeking a cure for mental ailments. For over 700 years, residents of Geel have been accepting people with often very severe mental disorders, into their homes and caring for them. It isn't meant to be a treatment or therapy. The people are not called patients, but guests or boarders. They go to Geel and join households to share a life with people who can watch over them. Geel’s approach was so successful that by the 1930s, a quarter of the people living in the town had some kind of mental illness.

“One of the boarders is a Flemish man named Luc Ennekans. He's slim and has green eyes, and he's 51 years old… His hosts, Toni Smit and Arthur Shouten, say that living with Ennekans was rough at the start. Ennekans became deeply attached to Smit. "If it were up to Luc, he would be hugging and kissing me all day," Smit says. He showered her with such affection, bringing her flowers, little kisses, linking arms with her on walks, that it began to interfere with Smit and Shouten's marriage. "You couldn't even give each other a hug or Luc is standing behind us," Shouten says. Wrinkles like this are common, according to the couple. They've had six boarders over the years, each with a unique set of challenges.

One boarder used to lock Smit and Shouten out of the bathroom to furiously wash his hands, and another used to struggle to sleep because he saw lions coming out of the walls. "He was really dementing," Smit says. But that doesn't affect the way they see their boarders. Like many hosts in Geel, they accept that this is simply who their boarders are. It's not abnormal or something they need to change. "It's just normal life," Shouten says. That acceptance of mental differences has become something of a tradition in Geel. It's at the heart of the boarder program, and some observers think it's also responsible for the system's success…

Residents of Geel have not only accepted the eccentric or disruptive behaviors of the boarders but have come up with creative ways to help boarders and residents manage them, says Ellen Baxter… For example, when Ennekans became too jealous or attached to Smit, Shouten and Smit encouraged him to find a girlfriend or other companionship. When their former boarder hallucinated lions coming through the walls, Smit would pretend to chase the lions away. "And that would work every time," Smit says.

Shouten and Smit receive a stipend from the Belgian government for taking care of Ennekans, as well as training and support from psychiatric professionals. Hospitalization is available if needed. Several studies have found that the incidence of violence by boarders is low; people who have previously exhibited violent behavior are usually not admitted to the program. The integration of people with mental disorders into Geel society has fascinated scholars. American psychiatrist named Charles D. Aring wrote in the journal JAMA, "The remarkable aspect of the Gheel experience is the attitude of the citizenry." Early psychiatrists who observed Geel noticed that the treatment prescribed for mental patients was, in fact, no treatment at all. "To them, treating the insane, meant to simply live with them, share their work, their distractions. In a colony, like in Geel, the crazy people ... have not completely lost their dignity as reasonable human beings."

Over time, Jay says, boarders had become such a part of life and society that distinctions between them and nonboarders blurred. And with that, "a lot of the problems we associate [with mental illness] kind of fade away," Jay says. "Like trying to navigate a world full of kind of normal people who don't understand what's going on and aren't tolerant towards it."

The program typically selects patients with severe mental illness or cognitive disabilities who have difficulty living independently. In 2003, almost half of the town's 516 boarders had a cognitive disability, and over 20 percent carry a diagnosis of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder. Some boarders have traditionally had other conditions such as learning disabilities or autism…

Boarders tend to stay in family care for years. In some cases, when boarders' caretakers grow too old or die, they continue to live with their caretakers' children. In 2005, nearly a third of boarders lived in a foster home for more than 50 years… The Belgian government pays 40 euros (less than $45) per boarder per day to support the practice, less than half of which goes to the foster family to cover living expenses. The tradition persists because Geelians are proud of it… It's part of the town's identity…”    ~ NPR

~ Luc Ennekans, 51, is deeply attached to his host, Toni Smit, causing friction in Smit's marriage.
~ Princess Dymphna being beheaded by her insane father
~ Saint Dymphna
~ Saint Dymphna Church