Paging parents of Type 1 teens...

[KateXXXXXX]

Just being nosy, really...

Who cares for your teenager? Is it the adult services or the children's?

At 16, my son is being cared for by the adult team, though we have been told that we can contact the kid's team at need. The GMNT is 6'1" and weighs 14 stone (AFTER losing 2 stone in a fortnight, prior to diagnosis!), and fairly mature for his age, so they put him under the adult team as they thought this would suits him better from the physiological point. Medway acknowledge that what is really needed is a sort of in between section for young adults to cover the 14-19 or so age group, but there's no funding or mechanism for setting one up.

He seems to be responding fine to being treated as an adult: there's a measure of independence there that I'm very reluctant to erode. But I do feel that some age appropriate advice would help him. The nurses all seem very on the ball with this, though it's a bit under the wire as there's no real official policy. We seem to be OK so far, but I was wondering how it worked in other areas and for other people... Given that every teenager/young adult is different, and every case of diabetes carefully tailored to be different each day for them all! 🙄

 

[Northerner]

Having been diagnosed aged 49 I can't help with the question, but I have read posts in the past where young people have found the transition from children's to adult's teams very difficult, so perhaps it is very good overall that he hasn't had to go through this. Hopefully, some of our members with experience will be able to help out 🙂

 

[novorapidboi26]

I was diagnosed at 15, and as soon as 16 came I was in the adult clinic, but I didn't really feel there was much difference, I did however notice a difference when I changed clinic locations...........so clinic staff is probably more critical in my opinion......

Is there something specific that the teenager in question needs at the mid point between childhood and adulthood.........?

 

[elliebug]

hi,
I transitioned a few years ago, and it was rubbish, so i think that if your son is getting on ok going straight to adults then its gonna save some upheval in a year or so, however, i would still ring the childrens team if they are happy for you to do so as i guess they may be more experienced in helping parents adjust etc as i have found adult teams focus on the patient and childrens more on the family as a whole. hope that helps!

 

[Monica]

When Carol was diagnosed aged 10, she obviously went under the childrens' team, then when she turned 13, she started to attend the teenager team, which are still the same people. Aged 16, I think, she will go to the "transition team, which is held by the kids' team and adult team together, so that the teens get used to going to the adult team. I can't remember how long she'll be in the transition team though.

 

[KateXXXXXX]

Hm... No he doesn't have any particular probems. I was just wondering how it was managed elsewhere. Seems that like much in the NHS, it's a bit of a postcode lottery!

I was just looking for things to avoid rather than looking for a problem to be solved.

 

[Tina63]

Hiya. My son was diagnosed 5 months ago, days before his 16th birthday. We were put with the children's team and have a whole years' appointments with that team. No-one has yet talked to us about adult clinics. My son is of similar height and weight to your son, though lost drastically more weight before diagnosis, but he has piled 30% back on rapidly unfortunately. I do wonder how the child/adult clinics differ. It all goes fine with ours, I just wonder whether they are a bit 'softly-softly' with him over things like his weight and whether adult teams would read him the riot act more? I guess we will find out in a year or two. How frequent are your clinic visits for your first year? Do you get home visits? We had appointments spaced at 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 3 months, then ongoing every 3 months with home visits between the 3 monthly appointments. Our specific clinic afternoon is for teenagers, I assume the younger children are seen in the morning but we only ever see teenagers there.