Health Care Justice Gathering

September 4-8, 2013

REGISTER NOW!

$100 off early-bird discount ends May 15!

A springtime gathering at the beautiful Gesundheit Institute in West Virginia.

"In medical school, I received no lectures on health, care or justice but instantly found them to be the foundations for my practice of medicine." - Patch Adams MD

Come get in a pile of folks who want health care justice; some new to it and some who have devoted their lives to it. Ideas and play can make revolution fun!

The Healthcare Justice Gathering is an activism-oriented meeting of students, physicians, medical professionals, clowns, and community-builders, whose programming is organized and created by its participants. Initially started in 2005 by the Direct Action Interest Group at AMSA, the HCJG is going on its eighth year and has expanded to include a workshop-based gathering at Patch Adams' Gesundheit! Institute in Hillsboro, West Virginia.

The theme of the gathering is Justice in US Healthcare 2013: What Do We Need to Know, Want, Strategize?.  The conference will provide opportunities to meet with current healthcare activists and to develop individual action strategies to help you continue to practice activism when you return to your community. 

Past conferences have included workshops on: Building Novel Model Health Clinics, Coalitions, Liberation Medicine, Body Language and Greetings, Medical School Curriculum, Laughter Yoga, Diversity and Racism, Permaculture and Land Sustainability, Media Tools for Activism, and the Economics of National Healthcare. Patch Adams, Susan Parenti, John Glick, Lanny Smith, Margaret Flowers, Paul Glover, John Stang, Andru Ziwasimon, and many other physician-activists have participated and presented.

This organic conference has reached out to people from around the world with the participation of students and practitioners in the health care profession as well as teachers, carpenters, poets and mothers. The meeting draws strength through building a lasting community.

We ask everyone to pitch in $ for food and housing - the love and life changing part is free of charge! 

Instructors/Facilitators

Patch Adams—entered medical school in 1967 to use medicine as a vehicle for social change; promotes and practices living a life of public joy as a revolutionary act; fount of ideas for avoiding burn-out in long-term social justice and health. Enthusiator.
Susan Parenti— composer, playwright, pianist, accordionist, poet, virtuoso speaker; critical observer & dramatizer of language's troubled relation to thought; composing not only pieces but also contexts where pieces might function: house theater, scripted rehearsal, timed discussion. Adept at making her personal curiosity social.
Melanie Meltzer— clown and scholar, mover and steadier, catalyst.

Further playful readings on health care justice:


General Information:

Cost: $550 covers food, lodging, all educational workshops, and transportation to/from the Lewisburg airport or White Sulphur Springs train station.This fee does not include your transporation to West Virginia.

Travel: Please meet us in West Virginia and arrive by the evening of Wednesday, September 4. You can plan to leave Gesundheit on Sunday, September 8, by the afternoon. The only meal we will be providing on September 8 is breakfast.

Registration and Payment: The full fee or deposit can be paid online via secure Paypal account HERE
OR with a check payable to Gesundheit! Institute and mailed to: Melanie Meltzer. Please email Melanie for details.

Forms: Please fill out the registration form as soon as possible!

Travel Information:

Traveling by airplane or train?

⇒ Gesundheit staff will shuttle people to and from the train station in White Sulphur Springs and the airport in Lewisburg on Wednesday, September 4 and Sunday, September 8 only.

Traveling by car?

  • On I-64 at Lewisburg, WV exit onto 219 going North.
  • After about 40 minutes, turn right on Locust Creek Road (veers sharply down opposite a sign for quarter horses, 2 miles south of Hillsboro. The turn is easy to miss—if you find yourself in Hillsboro, you've driven 2 miles past the turn!).
  • Take Locust Creek Road for about 10 minutes, over a bridge; the Gesundheit sign will be on the right.
  • Follow the gravel road all the way past the workshop to the parking area near the farmhouse and Dacha.

Gesundheit is located in a rural, mountainous area, so the roads are narrow and winding. It's good to make travel plans in advance.

Questions?

Email Melanie!