On Healing: Restoring the Soul of Healthcare through Caring, Loving & Laughter

This four-week medical elective on Gesundheit’s West Virginia campus gives participants an unparalleled experience in Gesundheit’s unique model of integrative healthcare. Designed for healthcare students and practitioners, the elective is designed for participants seeking development of skills in humanistic healthcare.

Gesundheit provides participants a counterbalance to mainstream medicine’s over-emphasis on science and technology, an imbalance which too often alienates patients, and has made primary care the most stressful occupation in the US. (Link). Based on the work of humanitarian and physician Patch Adams, the elective will emphasize the role of social forces on health, illness and healthcare.  In GI’s model, individual health and community health are linked in myriad ways, many of which will be explored and experienced in this comprehensive learning experience.

Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(18):1377-1385. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2012.3199

Themes

Towards a More Humane Model of Medicine History, Present and Future- To plan a new more intentionally humane future for medicine we need to know our historical and cultural contexts of health care. Students will actively learn about how medicine has evolved from its earliest roots to its present forms.

On Caring Care is the fundamental act in medicine, and is a deeply human endeavor. We exist because we care for one another. We will explore the sociophysiology of care, develop caring choreographies, and learn how to give and receive care.

Healing  “Healing”, says Wallace Stevens, “is the intuitive art of wooing nature.” “Cure”, on the other hand has a highly objective focus. Whereas the anecdote is dismissed in pursuit of truth in mainstream medicine, the narrative process can be a channel for healing. The narrative, the therapeutic ritual, the placebo effect, and other healing practices, will be explored and experienced.

Medicine and Art Art in its many expressions can, through activating the imagination, open channels of significance deepening understanding and promoting healing. Poetry, prose, music, dance, stage arts and clowning will be explored and experienced.

Doctor as Medicine We dissect the central social dialectic in today’s healthcare, the patient-doctor relationship itself, and how the caregiver can become a therapeutic force for the one cared-for.

Medicine, Community and Society Each moment is a healthcare moment. Communities, relationships, families, societies can create health or illness. We explore the role of physician in recognizing and making use of the therapeutic community.

Healthy Designing Rather than passively participate in current healthcare delivery systems, it is possible to design one’s own practice, making use of one’s unique talents, passions, and creativity.

Community Building and Active Participation An inherent part of the elective will be active participation in community building. Students and teachers will function as community members at the G! Institute. Active participation in work, cooking, organic gardening fun and play will be encouraged.

Suggested Reading List

  • Theft of the Spirit: A Journey to Spiritual Healing – Carl Hammerschlag, MD
  • The Dancing Healers: A Doctor’s Journey of Healing with Native Americans – Carl Hammerschlag, MD
  • The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine – Eric J. Cassel, MD
  • The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing and the Human Condition; Arthur Kleinman, MD
  • The Loss of Happiness in Free Market Democracies; Robert Lane
  • Caring;  Nell Noddings
  • A Life in Medicine; A Literary Anthology, ed. Robert Coles, MD and Randy Testa
  • On Doctoring: Stories, Poems, Essays; ed. Reynolds and Stone
  • Blood  and Bone; Poems by Physicians; ed. Belli and Coulehan
  • On Being a Doctor: ed. Michael LaCombe, MD
  • Articulations; The Body and Illness in Poetry; ed. John Mukand
  • Somebodies and Nobodies; Robert Fuller
  • The Doctor Stories; William Carlos Williams, MD
  • Gesundheit; Patch Adams MD
  • Why Normal Isn’t Healthy; Bowen White; MD
  • Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

Our Faculty

Melanie Meltzer Education Co-director
Susan R. Parenti, DMA
 Education Co-director, Composer & Playwright
Mark Enslin, DMA 
Composer & Playwright
Ginevra Sanguigno
 Professional Clown & Founder of Clown One Italia
Carl Hammerschlag, MD
 Chief of Community Mental Health; Author, Teacher and Healer
Jeptha Davenport, MD
 Neurologist
John T. Glick, MD
 Family Physician, Acupuncturist, Musician
Bowen White, MD Family Physician, Author
Paula Murphey Chiropractor
Hunter D. “Patch” Adams, MD
 Physician Activist, Author

Patch Adams MD & Gesundheit Institute, P.O. Box 307, Urbana, IL 61803

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