Diabetic 9yr old with broken arm

Nicki

I'd hazard a guess that the DLA was not awarded because the child had broken her arm and was unable to self inject temporarily but for her (many) other additional needs, and that if mum is not working (or working only a few hours a week) and having to provide 40+ hours of care attributable to the disability, that this money is not sitting around and available to pay these extra expenses for 4 weeks.

Do you really begrudge this family help just because they are entitled to DLA? That says a lot about you!

theoretica

There are one handed injection devices which might be worth discussing with her diabetic nurse or careworker. Maybe there is something similar for blood tests. Also as she gets used to having a broken arm she may find she can do more than first thought. See the bottom of this page.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/insulin/insulin-injection-aids.html

pogofish

Another thought - could the OP get in touch with her diabetic nurse and investigate the possibility of switching to a less aggressive/slower-acting form of insulin?

Even though it may not be a long term answer, it may be an acceptable alternative to reduce the number of times she needs to inject during the day for the time she's in the cast/has limited movement.

System

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

But we don't know that the OP is receiving any extra money, so that's a bit of an assumption.

Well Nicki, who I was replying to seemed pretty certain

System

Nicki wrote: »

I'd hazard a guess that the DLA was not awarded because the child had broken her arm and was unable to self inject temporarily but for her (many) other additional needs, and that if mum is not working (or working only a few hours a week) and having to provide 40+ hours of care attributable to the disability, that this money is not sitting around and available to pay these extra expenses for 4 weeks.

Do you really begrudge this family help just because they are entitled to DLA? That says a lot about you!

What it says about me is that I think that this situation falls under the remit of additional care that they get the money for.

If it was a child that did not get DLA etc who was in the same situation then my thoughts would be the same I.E it all comes out of the family income and it is up to the family how they cope/manage it.

I added the last bit for clarity because the next allegation would be that I am anti-disabled which is the default response when the pro-disabled bunch can't force their opinions onto somebody. That's the line these discussions take and I see this one going the same way.

elisamoose

I work in a school and the only children who have medication administered by staff are those with medical hours allocated by the locals authority.the staff are then paid and more crucially have time allocated to do this. a teacher is paid to teach - not to stop teaching to administer medication.What happens to the other children while the teacher stops teaching 3 times a day to do this?

as far as I am aware ,the only training that is mandatory is for asthma and episode pens and that may only be in my local authority.

tom9980

*Twinkle* wrote: »

some pretty sh*tty replies on this thread!
theres a fab facebook group called t1 children rights at school, join that, there is some brilliant advice
come September the school cannot refuse to help your child, again, look at this group, all the info is there.
my daughter is diabetic and her school cant do enough to help her, they did her injections and blood tests before she went on the pump, theyve managed her pump very well for the past year and they are now being trained to change the pump if it fails whilst at school.
you can pm me if youd like, I wont come back to this thread as some posters are very ignorant!
I hope your daughters arm heals soon and levels aren't being affected too much

You have had a good experience, however the school in your case have had time to put things in place and schedule training with willing volunteers. In this case the school and teachers wont even know about the broken arm until September.

Nicki wrote: »

My definition of a sh*tty reply is those who take pleasure in a young child's incapacity and finding ways to make life difficult for her parents, and those who use the fact that the child is sufficiently disabled to entitle the family to claim both DLA and CA as a stick to beat the family with, as to be entitled to both these benefits the level of disability is considerable.

Nobody is taking pleasure in the suffering of a child, your making that up. The facts remain in less than two weeks the OP's child will be back at school and nobody has the training to deal with her needs. The OP needs to solve the problem.

Vikipollard wrote: »

I'm appalled. What an awful bunch of jobsworths at your daughter's school.

At the school I worked in we had a child who suffered from anaphylaxis. All the support staff volunteered to be shown how to save his life. Some of the teachers did too, but there were the hardcore who said it 'wasn't their job'. Guess what, not ours either, but we're there to support the welfare and education of the children. Must be that it's only okay for non-teachers to be sued if it goes wrong.... I'd rather know that I'd tried than stand back looking the other way.

If it's suitable for children to be shown how to inject themselves, then it's suitable for the adults to be shown too. As others have said, it's a short term measure before a 9 YEAR OLD takes over control again.

I hope your daughter gets better soon OP, and that you find someone with some decency at the school to work with you to support her.

There are no jobsworth's at the school they do not even know about the new situation yet. They have called the ambulance when the child had previous bad hypo's as i hope anyone would who has no training and experience in such a situation. Everyone is within their right to decline the responsibility and liability they are educators not medical staff.

As it happens my wife has epi pen training and there is a child who has a severe nut allergy in the school who will be in her class come September. The situation has been managed and mitigated months before the child even joined the school.

I would LOVE for all the naysayers to explain to me how in the next two weeks is someone at that school going to be notified given they are on holiday and sent on training to do as the OP wants ready for the start of term. It will likely take weeks just to sort out proper training by which time the OP's child will be out of the cast. Its just not possible for the school to manage the new situation without the OP doing something.

Nicki

You do know that head teachers don't get the same holidays as teachers tom tom? The head teacher will probably be in school over the next few weeks as every head I know takes their leave earlier in the summer holidays so they are back at their desks a few weeks before term begins to finish planning for the new school year and deal with any last minute emergencies (of which this would be one).

So the head has a couple of weeks to organise for a contingency plan to be in place for the first week of term, not necessarily the first day as OP can probably manage for a couple of days either by keeping the child off school or by staying in school with her to assist. As others have said there are a variety of possible solutions ranging from a nurse/district nurse coming into school to administer the jabs personally to someone coming in to train a member of staff to do this. That doesn't have to take weeks or months to organise. When children (and adults) are diagnosed the training is given immediately. They aren't left for weeks suffering hypos.

You are putting obstacles and making excuses where none need to exist.

Chickvic

I work in a school (support staff) and I have administered and observed injections for diabetes and have done for 7 years. I have had training twice (2 different children) and all that's involved is the diabetic nurse coming in, explaining how to administer the injection and watching you do it once. That's it, that's all the training you get. I went on school trips and either injected the child myself or check the amount of insulin needed is correct as they do it themselves. I find it difficult, if your daughter has been there for 2 years already, that nothing is in place for her. I have been called out of class to check on child and made phone calls home. If I'm not in there is a member of office staff who is also trained although she rarely does it and the day to day responsibility is mine.

And no I don't get paid any more for doing it

littlesnuggy

Those of you talking about training/going on courses/having time to prepare.... they are not being asked to become diabetes experts, they are being asked to facilitate a process so simple that a 9 year old (and younger) can do it under normal circumstances. The 9 year old will take care of the important bit (getting the dose right). It is the simple procedure of guiding a very small (probably 4 or 5mm long) needle into the fatty flesh such as stomach or thing. It is not rocket science and it does not require a in depth medical training, just some willingness to help in the short term.