["A small piece of normal life". A qualitative study on health care for chronically ill children in home care].

This qualitative study deals with the subjective experiences of families with chronically-ill children and with experiences of the External Care Services (EPD) in Berlin, who exclusively conduct home-care for children. Learning to cope with chronic illness is a process that often demands professional help that extends beyond the time spent in hospital. Essential for the analysis performed here are the systemic positions put forward by v. Uexküll, Wesiack (psychosomatic medicine) and Friedemann (nursing science) who stress the connection between health and relationship. The parents' positive experiences reflect the patient-oriented understanding of health-care developed by the takes in the families in many respects. Without the care offered by the EPD some children would have been torn out of their family environment due to hospitalizations. This would have resulted in the damaging of the family health.