Pastoral Care

The Pastoral Care Team provides a compassionate support for patients, families during times of uncertainty, grief and hope. The team serves people of all faiths and spiritual traditions, offering care that respects each person's beliefs, values and needs.

The chaplains are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You may contact a chaplain directly or ask a nurse or care team member to request one on your behalf at any time.

Chaplains are clergy with expertise in the spiritual needs of children, families, and staff in a hospital setting.

Services include:

• Compassionate, confidential listening
• Support, advocacy and calming presence during difficult conversations
• Guidance with religious, spiritual and ethical concerns
• Collaborative care alongside social work, child life & education and other care teams
• Meaningful rituals, support groups and educational resources
• Worship services, sacraments and sacred ceremonies
• Prayer, blessing and hope throughout the journey

Our Chapels

Arkansas Children’s Hospital Chapel

The ACH Chapel is open for prayer to people of all faiths. It is located on the second floor near the Capitol Café and is open 24 hours a day for patients, families, and staff. 

• A prayer journal is available in the chapel for you to share prayers and concerns. 
• A prayer request card is also available from a chaplain or in our chapel, so that you can add a name to the prayer list. This prayer list is distributed to local congregations weekly.
• Devotionals are held Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10 a.m. in the Chapel. (Devotionals may be canceled without notice if the chaplain is called upon elsewhere in the hospital.) 

Faithful Friends Program at ACH

Faithful Friends was established at ACH in order for us to ensure that newly admitted patients and their families are aware of the availability of spiritual support, whether they physically see a member of Pastoral Care or not. This program allows trained volunteers to deliver new, soft stuffed animals ("Faithful Friends") and the colorful storybook, Fuzzy Bunny, A Faithful Friend, to children newly admitted to ACH units such as Medical/Surgical, Infant Toddler, Intermediate Care, and Neurology. Patients and families will learn that their Faithful Friend comes to them with love from people they have never met who are thinking of and praying for them - a tangible symbol of God's healing presence. 

These Friends are often tucked next to patients who are going into surgery, held next to the hearts of anxious family members who are waiting for news, kissed by injured children waiting for families to arrive at the hospital, and loved by siblings feeling detached from their brother or sister.