Editing Patch Adams (section)

==Early life and education==
Adams was born on May 28, 1945, in [[Washington, D.C.]], the son of Anna Campbell Stewart (née Hunter) and Robert Loughridge Adams.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/r/a/Kenneth-A-Graybeal-Bellevue/GENE4-0035.html|title=Kenneth-A-Graybeal-Bellevue - User Trees - Genealogy.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19390626&id=w-5NAAAAIBAJ&pg=4892,2964100|title=The Free Lance-Star - Google News Archive Search}}</ref> His maternal grandfather, Thomas Lomax Hunter, was a [[Poet Laureate of Virginia]]. His father, a [[United States Army]] officer who fought in the [[Korean War]], died while stationed in [[West Germany]] when Adams was only 16.<ref name="nyt"/> After his father's death, Adams returned to the United States with his mother and brother. Adams has stated that upon his return he encountered [[racism]] and [[Racial segregation|segregation]] amongst his peers against which he stood up, and this made him a target for [[Bullying|bullies]] at school. As a result, Adams was unhappy and became actively [[suicide|suicidal]]. After a third [[Psychiatric Hospital|hospitalization]] in one year he decided "you don't kill yourself, stupid; you make revolution."<ref>Hunter Patch Adams https://www.omgviralfacts.com/2020/01/05/hunter-patch-adams/</ref>

He attended [[Wakefield High School (Arlington County, Virginia)|Wakefield High School]], where he graduated in 1963,<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.wakefieldalumni.org/efnewsletters/AlumniNews2008.pdf |page=5 |title=Alumni News Wakefield High School |access-date=September 12, 2009 |year=2008 }}</ref> and then completed pre-med coursework at [[George Washington University]]. He began medical school without an [[undergraduate degree]], and earned his [[Doctor of Medicine]] degree at the [[Medical College of Virginia]] in the [[Virginia Commonwealth University]] in 1971. In the late 1960s, one of his closest friends (a man, not a woman as depicted in [[Patch Adams (film)|the film]]) was murdered by a deranged patient. Convinced of the powerful connection between [[Social environment|environment]] and [[Wellness (alternative medicine)|wellness]], he believes the health of an individual cannot be separated from the health of the family, community, and the world.

===Gesundheit! Institute===
{{Infobox organization
| name = Gesundheit! Institute
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| tax_id = 52-1573251
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| founded_date = 1989
| founder = Hunter "Patch" Adams
| type = Not-for-profit health care
| dissolved = <!-- {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
| location = [[Hillsboro, West Virginia]], U.S.
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| origins = 
| key_people = Chair, Cari Brackett, Pharm.D<br />John T. Glick, MD<br />Susan R. Parenti, DMA<ref>{{cite web |url=http://patchadams.org/board |title=Leadership Team: Board |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911023639/http://patchadams.org/board |archive-date=September 11, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=July 15, 2020}}</ref>
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| products = 
| services = [[Integrative medicine]]
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| homepage = {{URL|http://www.patchadams.org/}}
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}}

Soon after graduation, Patch, his wife Linda, and friends started to develop the ideas that eventually led to The Gesundheit! Institute. Originally as the Zanies, they ran as a communal "home" from 1971 to 1984. In 1989 Gesundheit! Institute was founded as a not-for-profit, and has continued to develop to this day. Based in Adams' rural West Virginia property, the institute has since been devoted to fundraising. The latest plan is for a 44-bed community hospital building that will offer free holistic care to "anyone who wants it", along with a teaching facility that can accommodate "120 staff, all living together in the communal ecovillage".<ref name="ic.org">{{cite web | url=https://www.ic.org/the-gesundheit-institute-a-45-year-old-communal-hospital-experiment/ | title=The Gesundheit! Institute: A 45 Year-Old Communal Hospital Experiment | date=September 2016 }}</ref>

Fees from the 1998 movie "made it possible to build three beautiful buildings... in preparation for the big buildings we want for the hospital". These are a farmhouse, workshop and [[dacha]] that accommodate the workshops and courses offered by the institute. The educational philosophy is contained in their "School for Designing a Society (SDaS) – for people who want to change society by means of desire, design, and composition..." and includes courses on caring and workshops on clowning.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.patchadams.org/education/ | title=Education }}</ref>

Adams was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award on January 29, 1997.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.peaceabbey.org/awards/cocrecipientlist.html|title=The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Recipients List|access-date=July 17, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214172308/http://peaceabbey.org/awards/cocrecipientlist.html|archive-date=February 14, 2009|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

In 2008, Adams agreed to become honorary chair of the "International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment" or IAACM. [[MindFreedom International]], a nonprofit coalition that Gesundheit! belongs to as a sponsor group, launched the IAACM to support "creative maladjustment" and social change.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/madpride/events/2008-events/patch-adams-iaacm|title=MindFreedom International launches IAACM|date=January 21, 2008 |access-date=July 17, 2009}}</ref>

Since the 1990s Adams has supported the [[Ithaca Health Alliance]] (IHA) in [[Ithaca, New York]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.patchadams.org/links/ |title=G! Links |access-date=December 16, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210043633/http://www.patchadams.org/links/ |archive-date=December 10, 2006 |url-status=dead |quote=* Ithaca Health Fund * Member-owned Non-profit Mutual Health Security * www.ithacahealth.org}}</ref> founded as the Ithaca Health Fund (IHF) by [[Paul Glover (activist)|Paul Glover]]. In January 2006, IHA launched the Ithaca Free Clinic, bringing to life key aspects of Adams's vision. Adams has also given strong praise to ''Health Democracy'', Glover's book written and published the same year.

As of 2016, Adams claims to "lecture 300 days out of the year, and have done so for over 30 years in 81 countries, spreading seeds of a love revolution of enlivening community and a call to end capitalism".<ref name="ic.org"/>