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volunteering on DUK holidays

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sofaraway

sofaraway

Senior Member
I have been thinking of volunteering on one of the diabetes UK holidays, have downloaded the application form. Just wondering if anyone has done it before and what it was like.
I'm wondering if I should apply for the kids holidays or the adults one as I haven't got alot of experience looking after kids.
 
Hi its also something i am interested in too! However, in my case it would be difficult as my son wouldnt be able to be with me so my husband would be left with him. I wanted to do it so i could learn more about diabetes, exercise and food etc.. I rang up and they were very nice, so give them a ring, they may be able to point you in the right direction! I would have thought it would be good to start with children as they are like 'sponges' were any help/teaching is concerned and probably have less pre-conceived ideas about diabetes than that of an adult - no offence meant to adult diabetics! Good luck. Bev
 
I applied last year to be a volunteer for the adult weekends. I sent in the application form and I wrote all the relevant dates and venues in my diary and didn't hear for some time. Then I got a CRB check to complete, which I did and returned. 6 months later and not a word!!! I phoned to ask what was going on and Diabetes Uk informed me that you don't always get accepted. But, as I explained to them, surely it would be courtious to let people know?? I have since calmed down and have made another call to them to ask if I might be considered for this year. However, both my application and CRB check are out of date and I will have to start the process all over again!!! Sorry, but I'm not that keen - they can forget it!! (And what must it be costing to get CRB checks done that won't even be used)?? - Good luck if you decide to go for it!
 
Volunteering for DUK Events

Hi All

I have been working on children's holidays and family weekends for 16 years. They are good fun but hard work. I have sent off my form for this year's event and done by CRB application form the other week.

What sort of stuff would you like to know?

Send me your questions and will try to help.
 
Hi pingu,
We live in Swindon too! I am hoping to get a place for Alex (10) for one of the diabetes uk holidays in the summer - can you let us know how good they are and what sort of things the children get up to? We are also hoping to get a place on the family weekend. Thanks. Bev
 
Volunteering for DUK Events

Hi Bev

What a small world!

I can only give you my experiences for one holiday - the Giggleswick Camp. Its a great site near the Peak District - near Skipton. This is our 6th year there. The staff are friendly and the food is really good, stunning scenery.

The holidays are great fun for the children. It allows them to participate in activities like rock climbing, kayaking, swimming, circus skills or theme park trips. They can see there are lots of people like them all enjoying themselves away from home! The teams contain roughly 10 children with one medic, one dietician and other leaders - like me! The teams are grouped by age ranges.

The sleeping arrangements are either dormitories sleeping around 4 people or 2 people or single rooms. Usually the younger the children are in dormitories of a group of people and they are the children in their team.

Education is not forced on them. Its usually through day to day experiences we find discussing their diabetes care with them. For example the medic for a team discusses insulin doses with a child depending on menu choices and activities for the day.

On recent camps we have children on all types of insulin and insulin regimes, including Multiple Doses and insulin pumps. Also we cater for children on special diets like coeliacs adequately with CF options on the menus.

I hope this is helpful. Let me stress again. This is what happens on the Giggleswick Camp only. Other sites may arrange their holidays differently.
 
pingu36dd said:
...I can only give you my experiences for one holiday - the Giggleswick Camp. Its a great site near the Peak District - near Skipton...
Click to expand...

As a grumpy old Yorkshireman I feel I do have to point out that the Peak District is quite a long way south of Skipton, and more associated with Derbyshire. Skipton is in the Yorkshire Dales...!:D
 
Volunteering for DUK Events

oops sorry - I was never good at Geography at school! Giggleswick is next to Settle - fantastic place!
 
Hi Pingu

That all sounds great! We are hoping to get a place at the southampton venue. The only worry i have is the night time hypos - does anyone check on them? Thanks. Bev
 
Yes, we always do hypo rounds during the night. If there are children who are risk, eg they were running low before bed we autmatically check their blood. We also check all the children for visual appearances of hypos - hot forehead, sweating, wake them to see if they are coherent.
 
Hi Pingu!
Coincidentally, i have just received a letter from DUK telling us that he has a place subject to all the medical info! I note from the letter that they are not allowed to take a mobile phone with them? I suppose its to give them some independence? Bev
 
Yes we do that too - no mobile phones. Don't know the exact reason for this but there is the obvious reasons for damage and loss of the phones. We don't want them to stick it in their pockets and fall in the river while rafting!
 
Hi

Just to pass on info from lots of my friends whose children have been on a DUK holiday, please do not expect great control of levels. Generally the children come back having being quite high all the time. However all the children, except one who was bullied by the boy in the same room as him but nothing was done, had a fantastic time.

None of my friends whose children are on pumps have been allowed to send their child on a DUK holiday. None of the staff nor volunteers know enough about looking after a child on a pump, personally I think that terrible and discriminatory but it is happening.

If you are volunteering and you have a pump then I would urge you to go on a children's holiday to help and maybe they will allow the pumping children to go. It's not fair they can't go. They have pumps so have better levels and then can't be supported by DUK!!!

Adrienne :(
 
unmet need for waterproof pumps and other medical equipment

I'm not sure of the reasons behind DUK not allowing kids with insulin pumps to attend camps, nor any children to bring mobile phones. Even during army basic training, soldiers are allowed access to their phones for a couple of hours each night. Although basic training is much longer than 1 week or 1 weekend, so perhaps it's more important to keep kids focused on what's going on around them, the people they're with and the activities they're doing.

Another potential reason could be the non waterproofness of phones and pumps. Actually, for phones there are loads of waterproof pouches, usually flexible, with roll-down velcro openings, sold by watersports suppliers, which are also ideal for blood glucose meters etc when canoeing, rafting, sailing etc - I used one for my meter when kayaking the Caledonian Canal for 5 days and several day tours, on multi-day sailing trips around British coasts etc.

I was made aware of the problems of non-waterproof vital equipment when volunteering with canoe club at a pool session for disabled children and siblings - one boy aged about 7 years had to leave the external part of his digital hearing aid on the side, which made communication more interesting - we had to swim in front of his kayak and attract his attention, so that he could lip read us. That works fine for canoeing, but must be much more difficult for swimming coaching.

Anyway, hope all volunteers and other participants have a great time on the trips - but don't rule out going on "normal" (ie not aimed at those with diabetes) adventure holidays. After several such trips, a lad aged about 18 years was a member of my "fire" (group) on an expedition to Greenland some years ago, and he achieved a first ascent of a previously unclimbed peak, skiing across glaciers, botany field work, built and slept in a snowhole etc, just like the other 11 young explorers - and caused my co-leader and I far less anxiety than another who sleep-walked (but couldn't open tent zips in his sleep, so it was only a problem when he slept in the snow hole, beside a crevassed glacier!) or another who moved rocks around with such enthusiasm that we were concerned about his impact on local ecosystems!
 
Hi

I think the phones thing is the same with school trips and the like, they don't want the child(ren) to get homesick so if none have phones, then the one without can't get left out.

The insulin pump I think is wrong. They should be catered for on a DUK holiday without a shadow of a doubt. It can't be due to not being waterproof. A couple of the pumps are completely waterproof, my daughter's isn't but you buy a waterproof case from Medtronic and it works a treat. For lots of sport you take the pump off anyway, my daughter doesn't need to swim with the pump, she would take it off.

Personally I feel they need to get up to date to ensure that all diabetic children can be included. Imagine if a child had gone every year and then progressed to pumps and were then told they couldn't go. The child and family have taken the step to try to get the best possible blood sugar level control, which is what a pump is for, yet the charity are not up to date enough themselves. Doesn't really cut it for me I'm afraid. I think this is an area that needs sorting out.

I know a couple of boys who have been excited about going and one very nearly was going right up the last minute and was only then told that he couldn't go as he had a pump!!!!

Adrienne 😡
 
Hi
Just to clarify - the DUK holidays do take children with pumps (and the majority of the holidays last year did have pumping children on them). The problem is that the doctors and nurses on the holidays who take the responsibility to manage the children's diabetes are volunteers and sadly don't always have experience of pump use (and therefore on some holidays have not always been happy to have children on pumps on their camps). This year DUK are really trying to get all the camps taking children on pumps - and are trying hard to get more doctors and nurses who are used to pumps to volunteer - so worth speaking to the team at DUK this year to check if the holiday your child wants to go on is taking kids on pumps. Personally I think the bigger issue is that some children's diabetes centres don't have the experience to put children who want pumps on to them. This should be available everywhere for those who want them - and shouldn't be a post code lottery of where you live
Simon
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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