House Calls: How We Can All Heal the World One Visit at a Time

Patch Adams, M.D.
Robert D. Reed Publishers (2005)
ISBN 1885003188
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (12/06)

Medicine became depersonalized when it became a business that no longer made house calls.  The shift from a service oriented, patient first, one on one house call to the patient going to the doctor, took out a precious part of the healing process.  In its place is an institutional concept where the patient comes second to business.  ”I think that the loss of the house call has been the biggest blow to the art of medicine in this century.  Not only has the patient lost this precious attention, but the physician has not found a replacement for the lost intimacy.”

“Extensive studies have found that, over long periods of time, nourishing elements—such as love, humor, wonder, curiosity, passion, forgiveness, giving, sharing, hope, enthusiasm, and joy—stimulate the immune system.  They help our bodies fight infection, stimulate natural killer cells that fight cancer, and affect the general way we care about and for ourselves and others.”  Anger, resentment, guilt, loneliness, fear and boredom have the opposite affect.  It is not the negative emotions that cause the problems.  It is when we hold on to those emotions for long periods of time.  “We must express each emotion as it comes up, but should not nurture or prolong the emotions that may hurt us.”

Dr. Adams describes this book as a “visitor’s kit.”  He’s right that’s just what this is.  He realizes that the “kit” can and should be used for more than hospital visits; he suggests prisons, nursing homes or “any place people may be suffering and wishing they were elsewhere.”

Among the things Dr. Adams discusses are faith, love, humor, curiosity and hope.  The information presented in this book has meant much to me.  I spend much time visiting in nursing homes.  When I first began to make these visits I found it very difficult, I didn’t know what to say or how to act.  Soon I began to see not a patient but a person.  I came to realize that they were people that needed a friendly touch, someone to address them by name and someone to smile at them.  My visits are no longer something I dread.  The residents and I truly enjoy visiting together. 

“House Calls” is a wonderful book and Dr. Adams is a talented writer as well as doctor.  It is written in an easy to understand manner and does not talk down to laymen, in fact it is pleasant reading.  The cartoons by Jerry Van Amerongen left me laughing and add much to the text.  The print is a good size and easy to read.  It is with great pleasure that I highly recommend this book to everyone, physicians, nurses, and all humans.  Dr. Adams’ book should be required reading to all those in the health care industry.  I’m glad I read this book I will be much more prepared by having my “visitor’s kit.”

Make comment on weblog