The specialist paper addresses the problem of distress in parents who are admitted to hospital together with a child, and examines the process in which the parents were offered drama activities as a form of assistance with arts in the hospital environment. In order to provide support to overcome distress, twenty 90-minute or 60-minute workshops in three different formats were held from October 2015 to February 2016 for parents at some departments of the Division of pediatrics, University medical centre Ljubljana and Department of pediatric surgery and intensive care, University medical centre Ljubljana: individual, group and individual workshops together with the child. During this period, twenty parents participated, in most cases parents of chronically ill children. The activities were based on and carried out using two models of assistance with drama arts, Dr. Sue Jennings and Alenka Vidrih, and were based on the understanding of the relationship between adults and children during play, as given by Dr. Zlatko Bastašić. The content of the workshops was continually adapted dependant to parental actions and needs. The study was designed in a qualitative manner and used the descriptive method. The study found that parents experienced the creative socializing at drama workshops as supportive, and that creative socializing had a positive impact on their relationship with the child. Assistance with drama art in the hospital environment is meaningful and useful, as it may constitute an additional source of empowerment for parents who are admitted to hospital together with a child.
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