This paper deals with the objectives and the general plan of the interuniversity and multidisciplinary research project of the family care for the mentally ill at Geel. The project tries to make a contribution to the rapidly developing field of research in social psychiatry.
The dependent variable in the research design is the changes in mental and social functioning of both mentally retarded and psychotic patients who are placed in foster family care at Geel; the degree of such functioning is directly or indirectly related to the impact of several independent variables. The Jatter are
1 — the structure and the modes of interaction of the foster families;
2 — the organisation of the medical and nursing activities of the supportive tentral hospital services;
3 — the characteristics of the Geel community and finally;
4 — the image of Geel and its care system to the outside world.
It may be said that the methods of a 'community survey' are being applied to the study of this particular type of milieu-therapy.