Our child life specialists provide life-affirming and life-strengthening care that includes:

• Educating your child about illness, treatment and surgery, in addition to preparing siblings for the hospital visit.
• Supporting your child during stressful experiences and procedures.
• Encouraging your child to express feelings about illness and treatment through therapeutic activities.
• Normalizing the environment through age-appropriate play and group activities.
• Helping your child with pain management through distraction and relaxation.
• Providing support for siblings and other family members, especially in times of grief and death.

Places to play
Child life specialists help our patients cope with hospital life and their illnesses by giving them chances to play and interact in our activity centers. All three Children’s locations feature activity centers supplied with toys, games and crafts for all ages.

In addition, patients and families at Scottish Rite hospital can visit The Zone, Kohl’s Activity Center or the Strong4Life Teaching Garden.

Seacrest Studios
Our patients at Egleston hospital can participate in the exciting world of radio and TV broadcasting and even meet some of the world’s most famous musicians, actors and athletes at Seacrest Studios, the first broadcast media center ever opened by the Ryan Seacrest Foundation.

They provide spiritual support and guidance to patients and families as they seek healing, meaning and hope in the face of illness or injury.

Chaplains share their responsibilities by rotating roles throughout the week to make sure someone is available for spiritual support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

They make rounds with caregivers, sit quietly at a patient’s bedside or respond to traumas in our three Emergency Departments. They also perform interfaith worship services in the hospital chapels at Egleston, Hughes Spalding and Scottish Rite hospitals.

Support at profound times

Chaplains are often called upon to be with families in their moments of greatest joy and deepest sadness. They celebrate baptisms, blessings, recoveries and birthdays with families. They provide bereavement support, conduct funerals and memorial services, and may help families talk through the delicate subject of organ, tissue and eye donation.

When to call a chaplain

Our chaplains are here to help. Consider calling a chaplain when you:

• Need assistance contacting your clergy or representative of your faith tradition.
• Are struggling to make sense out of what is happening.
• Need a Bible or religious literature.
• Need prayer or other religious rituals, such as anointing, baptism, infant dedication, communion or other ritual unique to your faith tradition.
• Are facing a new diagnosis, surgery or a significant change in the plan of care.
• Feel isolated or lonely.
• Are facing ethical decisions.
• Are grieving a loss or death.

Clinical Pastoral Education Program

If you have inquiries regarding our Clinical Pastoral Education Program, contact the Reverend Rosalynn Curry or call 404-785-2173. If you’re mailing an application, mail it, along with $60, to:

CPE Program/Chaplaincy
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
ACPE-CPE Center
1001 Johnson Ferry Road
Atlanta, GA 30342

Application can be sent via email to Samantha Snellgrove and payment can be made via credit card by calling 404-785-3996.

Apply for the Clinical Pastoral Education Program

Mentors share information and coping skills to help families reduce stress and manage their child’s healthcare in a positive way. They’re trained to provide support, modeling, suggestions and validation to families.

Mentors may talk with families about:

• Coping strategies
• Managing medical care at home
• Parenting in a hospital setting
• Obtaining and managing information during hospitalization
• Coordinating family life before, during and after hospitalization

Mentor requirements

Mentors are parents who have been identified as effectively managing the healthcare of their own children and are required to:

• Submit an application and letter of support from the healthcare provider most familiar with their child’s care.
• Interview with Family Mentor Program committee members.
• Complete a background check.
• Attend a training session.

Mentor Program service areas

The Family Mentor Program is still growing and isn’t yet available to all service areas at Children’s. The program is currently established in the following areas:

• Cardiac services
• Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU)
• Technology Intensive Care Units (TICU)
• Inpatient rehabilitation
• Outpatient rehabilitation
• Sickle cell disease

Connecting with a mentor

If you’re interested in receiving mentor services, contact a Family Mentor Program liaison listed below:

Cardiac services
Kati Keyes
404-785-1822

NICU/TICU
Cheryl McCarthy or Charlotte Eaddy
404-785-4074

Inpatient rehabilitation
Michelle Holtman
404-785-4462

Outpatient rehabilitation (cochlear implants)
Kelly Murphy
404-785-2881

Outpatient rehabilitation (feeding difficulties)
Demetria Utley
404-785-8956

Sickle cell disease
Patricia Waters
404-785-3518

The program will continue to expand into additional service areas.

Social workers at Children’s are vital members of each child’s healthcare team. They use their skills in assessment and intervention to provide our families with counseling, education and resources to enhance their ability to cope with illness or injury.

Our social workers can:

• Support you and your family as you learn to cope with your child’s illness or injury.
• Give you support during times of grief and loss.
• Address language and cultural concerns.
• Plan patient care conferences between your family and the medical team.
• Discuss any concerns about your child’s safety and protection.
• Plan for your child’s discharge from the hospital.
• Find resources to help pay for your child’s medicines.
• Arrange transportation to and from the hospital.
• Teach you about community agencies that provide ongoing services for financial, insurance, legal, mental health and other needs.
• Provide information about advance directives, which allow patients 18 years and older to make valid, legal choices about their future medical care.

Children’s has a highly qualified, certified team of interpreters and translators who work with doctors, nurses, family service personnel and other healthcare team members. These specialists serve as advocates for our patients and their families and help them with:

• Diagnosis
• Discharge
• Treatment plans
• Medical consent forms
• Other communication needs

Services include:

• Spanish and other foreign language interpreters
• Phone interpreters
• Sign language interpreters
• Written translations
• Cultural resource support

We also use Pacific Interpreters, a telephone service that is available 24 hours a day and provides interpretation in more than 150 different languages.

Located in Egleston, Hughes Spalding and Scottish Rite, our Family Libraries contain a wealth of consumer health information and recreational reading materials. All of our services are free. In addition, we provide communication assistance and recreational materials like puzzles, books, board games and more for our patients and their families.

What we offer

Educational materials

• Consumer health books
• Customized medical information searches
• Models and charts of the human body
• Reference materials
• Spanish materials
• More than 2,000 consumer health books, videos and DVDs

Communication services

• Computers with internet access and word processing capabilities
• Copier, fax machine, notary and printers
• Digital camera checkout (inpatient use only)
• A laptop program that provides laptops to patients and families for checkout after a seven-day hospital stay (Egleston only)

You can add to what you learn in our Family Libraries by consulting MedlinePlus, the National Institutes of Health’s website that offers reliable, up-to-date health information about diseases, conditions and wellness issues in easy-to-understand language.