Diabetes in Schools update

Do you know that the clinical team at Perth Children’s Hospital’s Diabetes Clinic can visit your child’s school?  

This service is part of the $6 million national Diabetes in Schools program to ensure that principals, teachers, and school staff have the support, training and tools they need to support students with type 1 diabetes at school.

There are three different types of training available for school staff –  

• Level 1: introduction to diabetes via online modules.
• Level 2: intermediate training, which will help schools understand general diabetes management. This can be completed online or delivered face-to-face in groups by Diabetes WA.
• Level 3: individualised skills training session delivered by PCH.

Credentialled diabetes nurse educators Daina Coenen and Adele Connor, who job share the fulltime position to help rollout the program at PCH, said reasons for level 3 training included having a newly diagnosed student, commencing school or a new school, transition of any sort (onto an insulin pump, change of CGM,) having a student who is unable to give own insulin doses, camp or administering glucagon.  

PCH is one of the first hospitals in Australia to deliver this critical diabetes training.

“These free training sessions are available for school-aged children with type 1 diabetes, delivered by their own clinical team, and we can visit metro and some regional schools and arrange video conferencing with those we can’t attend,” Adele said.

“It’s worth noting that many schools are already starting to plan for camp and even if it’s next year, it would be good for schools to start training.” 

There are many excellent resources for families and schools on the Diabetes in School website.

More information can also be found in this flyer.