DOCTOR CLOWN
creating health and safety for families,
children, parents, and communities" 
Interview whit Dr Patch Adams
Patch is considerate to be the father of clown doctors. Some years ago he put on a clown nose as he worked in a hospitals.
Dr Patch Adams is now a very sought after teacher and presenter all over the world. He regularly visits Russian orphanages and
hospitals as well as trouble spots in Europe, South America and other countries. He has recently visited Afghanistan together with
clown doctors from most continents. He has organised 2 planes to bring in 60,000 pounds of food and medical supplies for a
paediatric hospital in Kabul.
He is incredibly focussed, energised and driven to establish America’s first free hospital I West Virginia. He has a list of thousands
of doctors, eager to work at this facility, 60 hours a week for US$3,000 a year. He wants all the staff to experience happiness and
smiles. Patients will be actively participating in their healing journey. The full spectrum of the arts will be available alongside the
sciences. Building has commenced.
| Philosophically he sees that corporate
medicine has killed spirit of compassion. Further, he sees that humour and laughter is one of the ways of bringing compassions back into medicine. The "old" model of medicine incorporated the arts and this is what he perceives as missing in the scientific model of medicine. Professional distance or scientific detachment is a tool used so as not to get too close to one’s vulnerable parts. Associated with this is corporate and money-driven technology and he makes the comparison between a "greed" model verses a compassionate model in the provision of heath care. Dr Patch Adams sees clowns in hospitals as a way of getting a toehold to bring love beck into the health care system and to bring joy into the health setting. No single clown doctor organisation has exclusive mandate to carry out this activity in hospitals. |
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Laughter is the best medicine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Clown have worked in hospitals since the time of Hippocrates. The entire front page of Le Petit Journal of 13 September 1903 is given to drawing of clowns working in a
hospital. Dr Patch Adams put on a red clown nose as he work in a hospital 32 years ago.
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Professional clown doctors began working in a hospital in 1986 under a program called the "Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit", which was started by Michael Christensen in New York City. Clown Doctor program now operate in Australia, USA, UK, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Israel, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Finland, Hong Kong, Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey and Belarus (NB this list is incomplete). |
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The Clown Doctors use their skills such as magic, balloon sculpting, storytelling and other clowning skills to treat children with doses of fun to help them deal with the
range of emotions they may experience while in hospital.
The emphasis is on interaction with the patient and their families, rather than entertainment. "Clown rounds" benefit the whole hospital community.
Laughter is a "wonder drug" that:
written by : Andreja Takac ( free2@itcgbianchi.it )
