Ever watch the film Patch Adams?! I have and we did a fun assignment and picked a movie, picked a character, and connect it with a diagnosis. Here it is!!n
The film Patch Adams is based on a true story of a man whose name was Hunter Adams. At the beginning of the film, Hunter Adams self-committed himself for depression and suicidal behavior. While at the psychiatric hospital he did not find the care, he was looking for by the staff. He did however find a way to help other patients and decided to become a medical doctor to provide a different kind of care. He wanted to not just treat the disease but, treat the whole person. In this paper, the author will give a synopsis of the film Patch Adams along with symptoms of Hunter Adams, a connection between the movie and pathology, and treatment for Hunter Adams.
Synopsis
At the beginning of the film, Hunter Adams was experiencing a variety of symptoms. He mentioned feeling hopeless, unheard, and having this terrible snow storm within his own mind (Shadyac, 2003). Adams found himself lost in the middle of his journey and in a dark wood when he committed himself to a hospital for being depressed and suicidal (Shadyac, 2003). The film depicts Hunter Adams as an older man when he self-committed himself, but it was actually shortly after graduating (McLean, 2001). Adams talks about his family and how his father passed away when Hunter was only nine, while his father was not around much as a child due to being in the army, Adams felt deep grief when his father died (Shadyac, 2003). His father’s death leads him into advocating for civil rights as a teenager, trying and make meaning out of his life (Adams, 2001). After graduating, Adams had to be hospitalized three times, he did not want to live but realized the staff in the mental hospitals were just as unhappy as the patients (Adams, 2001). In the film he talked with a doctor, he mentions moving seven times in the last year and having multiple jobs that never seemed to work out, feeling out of place and lost (Shadyac, 2003). When asked how his father's death made him feel, the doctor did not really listen or seem to care which prompted Adams to responded with ridiculous sarcasm.
Humor and sarcasm seem to be a main coping mechanism for Hunter through his father’s death till the present day. In the film, Hunter Adams seems to find more help from other patients than from doctors. Hunter then changed his name to Patch and decided he wanted to spend his life helping others in a better way, better than those doctors who had failed him (Shadyac, 2003). He goes to medical school to become a doctor and finds the teaching to be the opposite of what he wanted to accomplish. The doctor and professors mentioned taking the humanity out of them so that they could become good doctors, while Patch wanted to bring humanity and compassion to the medical field (Shadyac, 2003). The culture of the school was competitive and harsh, while Patch continued to add humor and fun in any way that he could to this environment, he was also faced with opposition from his teachers (Shadyac, 2003). While breaking many other rules in school, he and some friends had also opened a house where people could be treated for free and in a compassionate way. Unfortunately, in the film, his close friend, Carin Fisher, was murdered by one of their patients and Patch almost gave up on his dream and felt immense grief (Shadyac, 2003).
Connection
In the film, Hunter Adams, who later changes his name to Patch, shows symptoms of depression and self-committed himself into a mental hospital where he made his decision to go to medical school (Shadyac, 2003). Helping others along with humor and compassion seems to help him with his own symptoms. Hospital settings at this time were expressive and unhappy places where Patch saw them as anything but healthy environments and through his medical school years, he planned on creating his own hospital (Adams, 2016). Patch experienced this unhealthy environment within the mental hospital and while in medical school. The doctors knew Patch had been suicidal, but the clinicians have a responsibility to understand and assess the risk which seemed to lack in his case. The culture of the hospitals was focused on the rich and white while the poor, female, and minorities were at a disadvantage (Adams, 2016). It is interesting that Adams became aware of these discriminations, as a white male it might have been easy to be ignorant of the system in place. Seeing it from a mental hospital might have better placed it as a human issue, not a political or socioeconomic issue.
In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) the diagnostic criteria for a depressive disorder that are similar to Patch Adams presented symptoms are depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, recurring thoughts of death, feelings of worthlessness, loss of energy, symptoms caused distress, and the episodes are not caused by a substance or medical conditions (DSM, 2013). Patch obviously admitted himself for suicidal ideation and found that it was not his first time, so recurring thoughts of death and distress from these symptoms were present (Shadyac, 2003). Many studies have found that depression or other mental illnesses are connected with suicidal ideation, but other factors may play more of a role (Werth, 2004). One main symptom that Patch possessed was a sense of hopelessness and not having a place, these are both connected with suicidal ideation and death (Werth, 2004). Patch mentioned moving seven times in one year and being unable to find a job that worked for him, this could be a sign of loss of energy and interest in things that once were pleasurable (Shadyac, 2003). After the death of his father we are unaware of how this loss really affected him, the doctor failed to gauge his emotions. After the death of his friend Carin Fisher, we can see how this loss affected him and how he almost quit everything out of sadness and quilt (Shadyac, 2003). Before medical school, it seemed that Patch fits the criteria for mild to moderate depression. Through medical school Patch seemed to fall into the specifiers of partial remission where symptoms are present but full criteria are not meet (DSM, 2013). After the death of Fisher, it important to be tentative with Patch and possibly work with him through treatment.
Treatment
One unthinkable thing in the medical field in this film and at the time was laughter. This assumption is wrong, and laughter has actually been proven to improve the immune system, lower stress, enhance respiration, and stimulate blood flow (Yeager, 2000). At the beginning of the film, Patch admitted himself into a psychiatric hospital with hopes of help (Shadyac, 2003). He was met with a cold medical staff that did not listen and only saw his diagnosis. In treating Patch, I would first and foremost treat Adams with respect and the ‘do no harm’ by not treating him like another check on a to-do list. Patch Adams understood the power of humor can have benefits. Patch coped with sarcasm and humor and I would build upon those coping mechanisms and work with them. Patch may have some complicated grief from the loss of his friend Carin Fisher and work through this loss with him would be one objective. Laughter has been a way to confront fears and loss, this can be a way to explore further feelings with Patch (Yeager, 2000).
Some symptoms Patch might face, in dealing with the death of his friend, are feelings of guilt as well as a negative view of himself (Rush & Beck, 1978). Cognitive based therapy can be a treatment type that he could benefit from. Collaborating with the therapist Patch would decide to focus on specific problems that the therapist and he would work on throughout the sessions. The sessions would provide new tools to reevaluate past thinking and distance himself from the automatic distorted negative thoughts (Rush & Beck, 1978). Implementing a patient-centered therapy would also help Patch with both his medical and emotional needs and combining it with humor would increase participation (Scholl, 2007). Patch used humor and sarcasm to cope, but it can also be used as a therapeutic tool in treatment. Laughter creates an increase of hormones, antibodies, and killer cells to help fight off diseases, this may be why Patch when in the mental hospital, found healing through making others around him laugh (Scholl & Ragan, 2003). Humor in patient-centered care has played an important role in the therapeutic relationship and can provide a proactive way to link the mind and body (Scholl, 2007). Giving an environment for Patch to feel heard and listen to would be so beneficial and very different compared to his first encounter with mental health professionals. With a combination of patient-centered and cognitive-based theories, Patch can not only build upon past coping tools but learn new tools that may better help him in future issues and life events.
Conclusion
The film Patch Adams told a true story about Hunter ‘Patch’ Adams journey from depression and suicidal ideation to helping others in a medical setting with humor and compassion. The medical setting at this time was not a great environment for patients or medical staff. Patch saw an issue in the current system and sought out change. Before starting medical school, Patch seemed to fit the criteria for mild depression, and while in school, he seemed to have moved to partial remission. when his close friend Fisher passed away his symptoms may return, and treatment would be beneficial. Treatment for Patch Adams would be similar to his own coping tool. By using patient-centered therapy mixed with humor, it will provide care that not only looks at his physical health but also his mental and emotional health.
References
Adams, P. (2016). The gesundheit! Institute: A 45-year-old communal hospital experiment. Communities, (172), 14–17. Retrieved from http://uc.opal-libraries.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=117833879&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Adams, P. (2001). Patch Adams Motivates Conference Attendees to Be Celebrants of Life, Corrections Today, 63(2), 38. Retrieved from http://uc.opal-libraries.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=4765500&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (2013). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing
McLean, C. (2001). Sane people laugh. Report / Newsmagazine (Alberta Edition), 28(13), 54. Retrieved from http://uc.opal-libraries.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=4642501&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Rush, A. J., & Beck, A. T. (1978). Cognitive therapy of depression and suicide. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 32(2), 201–219. Retrieved from http://uc.opal-libraries.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=1979-24065-001&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Scholl, J. C. (2007). The use of humor to promote patient-centered care. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 35, 156–176. doi: 10.1080/00909880701262658
Scholl, J. C., & Ragan, S. L. (2003). The use of humor in promoting positive provider-patient interactions in a hospital rehabilitation unit. Health Communication, 15, 319–330. doi: 10.120715327027HC15034
Shadyac, T. (Director). (2003). Patch Adams [Motion picture]. Place of publication not identified: Universal Studios (UK).
Werth Jr., J. L. (2004). The relationships among clinical depression, suicide, and other actions that may hasten death. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 22(5), 627–649. doi: 10.1002.616
Yeager, T. (2000). Laugh your way to better health. American Fitness, 18(2), 26. Retrieved from http://uc.opal-libraries.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=3170895&site=ehost-live&scope=site
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