How we work today
Foster Family Care can be a very powerful tool in mental health care. It can really be lifechanging, specifically for people who face severe and chronic mental health issues. For the programme to be successful, a balanced interplay of the parties involved is required: the patient or boarder, the foster family, the psychiatric care centre, and the local community. Each party has its specific role and responsibilities.
Boarders
Before boarders are referred to foster care, they have very often already been in psychiatric hospitals for years. At the time of referral, their mental state is more or less stabilised and it is clear that, at least at that moment, they can only properly function in society with intense and long term treatment and support of a psychiatric team.
Foster families
Prospective foster families are carefully and thoroughly screened. Before the screening starts they are extensively informed about all aspects of fostering and about the conditions of the cooperation with the OPZ Geel in the care for a boarder. Those rules of cooperation are outlined in a contract.
Support by OPZ Geel
Prospective foster families are carefully and thoroughly screened. Before the screening starts they are extensively informed about all aspects of fostering and about the conditions of the cooperation with the OPZ Geel in the care for a boarder. Those rules of cooperation are outlined in a contract.
The community
Boarders and foster families are supported by the foster family care team of the OPZ Geel. This team is made up of psychiatrists, a psychologist, general practitioners, a team coordinator, nurses and a social worker. While the foster family focuses on the issues of everyday life, the team is responsible for everything related to treatment. The focus is on recovery, maintaining and promoting stability, crisis prevention …
European touch
After listening to the description of the model and hearing about the tradition of centuries of fostering in our town, people very often think that it is impossible to start up a programme like ours in their respective country. This is not the case: similar programmes have already seen the light of morning in several European countries; for instance in Germany (Betreutes Wohnen In Familien), France (Accueil Familial Thérapeutique), and Italy (Inserimento Eterofamiliare Supportato Di Adulti).