In this work I try to establish which artistic activities (music, art, dance, drama) are being carried out with hospitalized children in hospital wards, and furthermore, in what way and to what extend they are being carried out in the sense of the therapeutic process that can diminish the children's troubles during the time of their hospitalization. Art is one of the basic human needs through which we express our feelings. It is an important topic for every child who is ill, hospitalized and separated from their family and parents. In the theoretical part I detail the problem of children's hospitalization and the endeavour for the development of the humanization of the conditions in hospitals from the time when first pediatric hospitals were founded in Slovenia up to the present. I describe typical psychological features in the case of child's illnes and hospitalization as well as children's wards and their characteristics. I also present the spheres of helping by using art (artistic, musical, dramatic, dancing) and also the currently existing models of using the artistic activities for therapeutic purposes. In the empirical part I present the experiences and knowledge I gained while I was carrying out artistic activities at different departments of the Clinic of Pediatrics in Ljubljana during my work practice. I also present working approaches that were used and the children and adolescents' responses to them. Qualitative research establishes the extend and the ways in which therapeutic artistic activities are included in children's wards in Slovenian hospitals, standpoinds of people who perform such activities and their assessment of the influence and contribution of those activities in the process of children's medical treatment. As a result of having several theme-oriented group discussions in three focus groups of five people and six profound individual interviews I obtained different opinions and learnt about perceptions and experiences of the participants. I analysed the data by using qualitative analysis. The results of the research have shown that people who carry out artistic activities with hospitalized children have a positive attitude towards art. The field of art is of priority at their work. They practice artistic activities daily and they adapt them to different circumstances and diseases.
This work is a survey of the practice of artistic activities that are being carried out in children's wards in Slovenia and the analysis of the actual state on the basis of which we can establish the necessity for art therapists to cooperate with medical teams in pediatric hospitals in Slovenia.
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