ABSTRACT
The Lantern Trust is a small educational charity which has been working since 1988 in the fields of Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) education, loss, bereavement and palliative care, using a creative arts approach. The increasing incidence of the HIV and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) throughout the world has presented health-care workers with not only a professional challenge but also a personal one. Confusion exists in the public mind between HIV, the virus or organism which attacks the immune system lowering resistance to infection, and AIDS, which is the collective name given to infections which may occur as a result of the presence of the virus. Other work has developed using a similar approach, and a style of facilitation which combines socio-dramatic direction with Boal Forum theatre is used to illustrate the support needs of people living with HIV and AIDS in the community.
