Half of Geel is crazy, and the rest is half crazy,” runs a joke often told about the Belgian city of Geel.

The city is home to hundreds of mental health patients, who live not in psychiatric hospitals but with local families as part of a unique model of care dating back centuries. The people call them ‘guests’ or ‘boarders’, who are ‘different’ or ‘special’.” They receive a stipend, and become part of their everyday life,as a matter of fact,their unusual behaviour is accepted, rather than being treated as a symptom to cure.

Geel has been famous for its model of psychiatric care for centuries, and with the system dating back to the 14th Century.

https://dayoonayemi./2019/07/03/geelbelgian-city-of-mad-people-for-over-100years/