Teaching Center and Clinic

Teaching Center

The Patch Adams Teaching Center will be committed to teaching change in 'care systems'—focusing particularly on health care, but also on education care, justice care, and environmental care. It will serve the global community, working with participants to find a language for their own desires in care and their own designs for implementation.

The Center will serve the global community, working with students to build care systems that are socially responsible and financially just, and will include:

• 10,000 square feet, three stories, passive solar construction, built over Pocahontas Creek
• classrooms
• a performing arts venue
• the Patch Adams Library
• a low-power FM radio station
• media production studios
• a full service kitchen serving 100 people
• housing for 50 students

The library:

• 20,000 books and videos in areas crucial to health
• out of print and hard-to-find titles
• alternative and international presses.
• all books published in the last 20 years in English on health care design
• large collection of literature by women and international writers
• books on community, arts, education, and social change

Classes and conferences will be taught by the ten core faculty members at Gesundheit. In addition we will have guest presenters from humanitarian organizations from across the world including: the American Medical Student Association, Ideal Medical Practice, Make a Wish Foundation, Global Exchange, the World Health Organization, Health Democracy, People's Health Movement, School for Designing a Society, Partners in Health, Bola Roja (Peru), Clown Italia (Italy), Airline Ambassadors, Global Outreach, Second Wind, ELAM (Cuba), Direct Relief International, and MAP Relief International.

The Clinic

The free Clinic will be open 24/7, and will have a staff of 10 serving the people of West Virginia, in one of the poorest counties in the U.S. The Clinic will provide a model for students and medical professionals to practice medicine with care and compassion amidst a playful, professional team. A special emphasis will be on prevention, both individual health behaviors and overall public health.

In addition to examination rooms and physician offices, the 20,000 foot clinic will have a greenhouse, group kitchen, radiology suite, and arboretum.

Primary care services provided will include full family medical and dental care, mental health care, pediatric care, women’s health care, and pregnancy care. Additional medical services will include podiatry, health screening, blood pressure clinics, dietary counseling, a pulmonary clinic, a diabetic club, authorized lab and x-ray assistance, eye care and patient advocacy, nutritional planning, Sickle Cell testing, social services, ultrasounds, and referrals.

The clinic will serve residents of Pocahontas, County West Virginia and outlying areas. West Virginia has a higher poverty rate than the national average for all age groups. 24% of its population is disabled, with a relatively high number of homebound seniors. In the County, only 11% of adults over the age of 25 have a college degree. (US Census, 2006)

Patients will benefit from care unencumbered by financial restraints, by wellness-oriented care, and from the sense of belonging to the Gesundheit community; clinic staff will benefit from the non-hierarchical, playful team work and freedom to practice as they choose; and students will benefit from experiencing medicine as a compassionate service to their community.