Minister Leo Varadkar has today Monday, 14th December 2015 launched a new Model of Care for all Children and Young People with Type 1 Diabetes.

This new model of care has been developed by Dr. Stephen O’Riordan and the Paediatric Diabetes Working Group through the governance of the HSE/RCPI National Clinical Programmes for Paediatrics and Diabetes. In developing this model the multi disciplinary working group received input from international experts and consulted widely with healthcare professionals providing paediatric diabetes services. The views of children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes, and their parents, was sought with the help of Diabetes Ireland, and the feedback received helped to shape the development of the model.

Launching the new model of care today, Minister Varadkar said: “Diabetes in children is a worry for parents and their families. Specific guidance on how to care for their children is needed by parents, along with age-appropriate self-care for children. And the evidence shows that the earlier you provide diabetes education, the better the outcome.

“This model of care was developed after consulting with children and their parents. It will improve access and quality of care for all children with Type 1 diabetes, and we hope it will reduce acute and chronic complications in the future. It should improve diabetes education, and facilitate carbohydrate counting and the early use of insulin pumps. It will also guide the further development of paediatric diabetes services.”
Type 1 diabetes is complex in childhood and remains so throughout adolescence. The primary aim of this model of care is to define how quality diabetes care should be delivered. The key objectives are:
• To define how quality diabetes care will be provided to all children and young people in Ireland based on Integrated Practice Units.
• To provide a pathway to improved health-related quality of life of children and their families living with Type 1 Diabetes and reduce acute and chronic complications of Type 1 Diabetes
• To identify the structured education programmes to be used by multi disicplinary teams to optimise diabetes education, carbohydrate counting and insulin pump initiation.

Congratulating the team who developed this model, Dr Áine Carroll Head of HSE Clinical Strategy and Programmes said “This model of care is an initiative of the paediatric diabetes team under the National Clinical Programmes for Paediatrics and Neonatology and working closely with the National Clinical Programme for Diabetes. The model of care is timely and much welcomed to guide the delivery of health services to all children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus over the coming years. The publication of this person centred model of care clearly demonstrates the benefits of co-production between clinicians, patients and families. “

In welcoming the publication, Professor Hilary Hoey, Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist and Chairperson of Diabetes Ireland said “ This model provides a strong platform on which to build a high quality service with equity, local access and support for all children with Type 1 diabetes and their families, regardless of where they live in Ireland. In order to be of real value to our Type 1 diabetes paediatric community we need to see implementation of the care model as soon as possible”

The new model of care will involve a departure from routine diabetes care and will require organisation of care into integrated practice units (IPUs). These IPUs will require new governance structures. Implementation of the model of care is planned for the next 5 years and the next step will be to support the development of an implementation plan. Key recommendations also include
• Ongoing training and structured education of paediatric diabetes teams
• Development of national, quality assured, educational programmes for children with Type 1 diabetes and their families and carers
• Collection of baseline data to allow ongoing audit and appropriate service development