Openbaar Psychiatrisch Zorgcentrum Geel

OPZ Geel has strong roots in history. More than 700 years ago, the inhabitants of the town of Geel took people with mental problems into their homes. These were pilgrims who came to the grave of Saint Dimpna to beg for healing for their 'insanity', as their mental fragility was called at the time. Wandering and looking for something to hold on to, they were not only sheltered in the place of mercy, but their vulnerability was also accepted and they were given a place in the community. Throughout the centuries, thousands of drawn people have found a warm home and a valuable life in a caring community.

In the middle of the 19th century, the foundations were laid for the expansion of the 'colony of Geel'. The first psychiatrist came to the town and the government imposed a number of rules. These provided, among other things, for the division of the town into three districts, the establishment of an infirmary with two departments (men and women) and a number of observation cells, the appointment of a chief medical officer and doctors, and the recruitment of district nurses or sectionals. The duties of the boarders were laid down, as well as the rate of the maintenance fees; also the way in which the placement of the 'sick' had to be done was described by the legislator. In the second half of the 19th century, 'the colony' was greatly expanded: several iconic buildings were erected; the care was professionalised; the number of patients in foster homes rose to more than 3000 between the two world wars.

Until today, the Geelse Gezinsverpleging (Family Care) has remained a unique form of residential care that offers a good solution for some 200 stabilised chronic patients. What is unique is the way in which the actors work together around the patient: the family that takes the patient into its heart and accepts him as a housemate, the community that supports this and gives the patient a fully-fledged place in its midst, and the OPZ Geel that provides professional support and guidance to patient and foster family. Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has also been a project whereby children are placed in care families. This form of residential care is used in a differentiated way - tailored to the needs of the child.

In the early 1980s, the Sano Clinic was established because there was a need for a psychiatric hospital in the Kempen. For two decades the Sano Clinic and the Family Nursing Service formed the two major entities of the Public Psychiatric Hospital Geel. In 2002, at the request of the Ministry of Public Health, a child and adolescent psychiatry department was set up. The OPZ Geel carried out a reorganisation into three divisions: Adults, Old Age and Youth, each with its own approach tailored to the target group. The range of care has been greatly expanded with options for full-time or part-time admission, admission and treatment units, mobile teams, outpatient consultations and guidance, day activities and day treatment, post-cure... In collaboration with partners, it also participates in other housing forms than family nursing: Beschut Wonen Kempen, PVT Salto and collaborative arrangements with residential care centres in the region.

OPZ Geel is co-founder and partner of the GGZ Kempen Network. Among other things, the Network offers an answer to the demand for socialisation of care: more accessible care, quicker and more correct referrals, guidance in the patient's own environment and better coordination between care providers.

OPZ Geel is a public psychiatric care and knowledge centre with a second-line mission.

Within the framework of Better Administrative Policy, OPZ Geel was transformed into an externally independent agency (EVA) of the Flemish Government on 1 January 2007. OPZ Geel is part of the policy domain of Welfare, Public Health and Family. As an EVA, it has its own legal personality and its own Board of Directors. Since then, our organisation has been called the Public Psychiatric Care Centre Geel, or OPZ Geel for short.

The archive and documentation centre preserves the archives of Geel family nursing since the early 19th century and the archives of OPZ Geel and its predecessor, the 'State Colony for Free Family Nursing'. It also holds collections and documentary files on family nursing and psychiatry in general with books and magazines, photographs, film, objects and art objects.

Gewillig België mentions "G5.01 - Dossier Joden - Briefwisseling, lijsten enz., 1921-1945" (File on Jews - Correspondence, lists, etc., 1921-1945).