Gesundheit! News

Patch's blog

Read Patch's most recent (July 09) blog here

Gesundheit Press Conference at the Rayburn Building in Washington, DC, July 28, 2009

Educational Opportunities

EDUCARE AL DESIDERIO (Desire & Design) • Nov 25–29, 2009, Milan, Italy Bilingual workshop with Patch Adams, School for Designing a Society, and Clown One Italia. Read more ...

HEALTH CARE JUSTICE GATHERING • December 28, 2009–January 1, 2010 on the Gesundheit land in West Virginia, an activism-oriented meeting of students, physicians, medical professionals, clowns, and community-builders. Read more and apply ...

CLOWNING AND CARING IN ECUADOR • Jan 2-8, 2010 An educational clown tour with Patch Adams and teachers from the School for Designing a Society. Read more ...

Current Campaign

NEW GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN! For 35 years, Dr. Patch Adams and the Gesundheit Institute have worked on a model of health care that puts care at the center of health. Gesundheit has launched a grassroots campaign to raise $1 million in 08-09 to create a Teaching Center and Clinic where health care practitioners will gather to further ideas and strategies for changing the health care system. A major donor campaign is expected to raise an additional $9 million. With your help, we will establish a physical center to demonstrate an ongoing, working model of joy in service.

• Read more about the campaign
• Help put the care back in health care by donating.
• If you are interested in learning more about our major donor campaign, contact one of our Development Staff.
• Subscribe here and Funny Times will donate 100% of the subscription price to Gesundheit!
• There's a winning design from the fun-raising t-shirt design contest!
  Read more & order
• THE BELÉN PROJECT: Special grassroots fund raising request for ongoing community collaboration in the Belén district of Iquitos, Peru. Read more about the project ...

Upcoming Clown Trips

RUSSIA • Nov 7-22, 2009 Celebrating a quarter century of "nasal diplomacy" in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Patch is welcoming old friends & friends-to-be with the first Gesundheit-arranged clown tour to Russia. There are a few places left, so act soon! Read more and reserve a space

PARENT-CHILD BONDING, PARENTI-CHILD HEALING — GUATEMALA • Jan 30–Feb 6, 2010 A special clown trip for parents and children (age 16 - 25), with Patch and Lars Adams, John and Terra Glick. Write to Lars and Terra at parentchildtrip at patchadams dot org. Read more

Recent Events

CLOWNING AND CARING IN COSTA RICA • Sept 10-16, 2009 An educational clown tour, with Patch Adams, Susan Parenti, Mark Enslin, Melanie Meltzer, and Kate Herron Slaymaker. Read more

THE BÉLÈN PROJECT, IQUITOS, PERU • August, 2009 " ... this was our most ambitious and successful community development project to date ... " Read more ...

SOUTH ITALY CLOWN ONE ITALIA TOUR: CALABRIA and SICILY • June 27–July 7, 2009
The seventh Clown One Italia tour began in Reggio Calabria and ended in Palermo. For more about Clown One Italia, email Ginevra at: info at clowns.it Un abbraccio !

ROMANIA CLOWN TRIP • June 28 — July 8, 2009 The Gesundheit! Institute and Over the Rainbow conducted a 10-day clown tour in Singureni, Romania, visiting hospitals and orphanages, offering to paint and repair houses and miscellaneous work in a community that welcomes orphans and children infected with HIV. For more information about Over the Rainbow, contact Elisa (e.rampin at tin.it) or Wildman (wildeman69 at verizon.net)

NORTHERN ITALY CLOWN TOUR, PADUA TO VENICE • July 11-22, 2009
One of Gesundheit's partners, Over the Rainbow, organized a clown tour in northern Italy (Padua and Venice) July 11-21, 2009. For more information you can write in Italian or English to Elisa (e.rampin at tin.it) and Wildman Adams (wildeman69 at verizon.net).

NICARAGUA CLOWN TRIP Alternative Spring Break • March 7-14, 2009 by John Glick. Read more ...

GUATEMALA ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK 2009 Report from a Canadian nurse & first-time clown. Read more

CUBA CLOWN TRIP • Dec 2008 by John Glick. Read more ...

ECUADOR CLOWN TRIP • June 2008 by John Glick. Read more ...

REFLECTIONS on the Feb 09 Health Care Systems Design Intensive: Carl Hammerschlag, MD, a guest presenter at the Intensive, blogs about his experiences in Baltimore, with video & photos: www.healingdoc.com

2009, YEAR OF HOPE AND CHANGE: THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX—DESIGN DESIRABLE HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS! • Feb 2–5, 2009 at the Visionary Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.  Interactive teaching sessions and small group work to enable participants to “build their own”—develop their own ideas and desires for their ideal health care practice. Speaker and project presentations reported on “what’s out there?”—informing us about actual models, structures, and practices going on right now that act as models for inspiration and influence. Patch Adams MD, the Gesundheit doctors and practitioners, and School for Designing a Society teachers were actively present in all sessions during the conference. Co-sponsored by the Emory University School of Medicine. Read more about the intensives
Read the HEALTH CARE INTENSIVE FEB 2009 BLOG

EDUCARE AL DESIDERIO IN PRUNO, ITALY • November 24–29, 2008 "Education in Wanting, Not Just Knowing" A seminar offered by Clown One Italia Onlus and the School for Designing a Society in Italian and English ... We human beings need to strengthen not only our knowing, but also our wanting—the ability to see that something is missing, that things could be otherwise. This is the 2nd year that SDAS offers a 7-day workshop in desire, design, performance, interaction and fun in this mountain village in Italy. Openings are still available. To apply, email Ginevra Sanguigno
For more info, visit http://www.designingasociety.org

THE JOHN M. STANG, MD MEDICAL ELECTIVE • Sept 29–Oct 23, 2008: "Humanistic Medicine: Constructing Your Humanism." This elective at the site of the future model hospital in West Virginia provides braided learning for the teaching of humanism in medicine using both didactic and project-based approaches. For all interested stake-holders in health care—pre-med students, medical students, nursing students, activists, scholars. Elective credit can be arranged. Read more.

JAPAN CLOWN TOUR with Patch Adams • September 11–19, 2008. This will be the first clown tour in Japan. Visit hospitals and institutions with Patch Adams to present love, smiles, and healing for patients, elderly persons, physically challenged persons, families and medical staff. Read more ...

BELEN PROJECT AUGUST 2008: The Fun Continues; Community Grows. Gesundheit Global Outreach brought a large clown team to the Pueblo Libre neighborhood of Iquitos/Belen, Peru, the fourth such trip, including house painting, performance, work with community organizations. Read John Glick's report here.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX 2008: Re-Design Our Health Care System • August 6–11. A 5-day working conference at the Gesundheit Institute in Hillsboro West Virginia. The aim was to seed a variety of designs of projects at the local level, that will fundamentally change the health care system for the better. Read more here.
For reflections on the 2007 conference, read here

ITALY IN JUNE: Humanitarian Clown Trip • June 20–30. This was our 6th Clown trip to Italy, spreading joy by clowning in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, on the streets. Read the full announcement

HAITI: WE ALL NEED EACH OTHER—Reflections on Spring Break Trip. We who have been the core of Gesundheit humanitarian clowning for decades started taking groups of students on spring-break trips to poor countries to clown. We want young people to experience what happens in themselves when they see that their actions of love and healing relieve suffering. Read more ...

HEALTH CARE JUSTICE RETREAT • January 2-5, 2008: Update. Thirty medical students involved gathered on the Gesundheit land in West Virginia to start the New Year with new ideas for the health care relationship. This retreat was organized by students involved in the American Medical Students Association. Please stay in touch to hear about future retreats.

PERU REPORT: Gesundheit completes its 8th Humanitarian Clown Trip for 2007. Gesundheit returned to Peru in December 2007, bringing several dozen high school aged youth from Camp Winnarainbow to offer fun and friendship and improve health care and sanitation in the area. Read about past clown trips ...