Cumberland Hospital’s Diabetes Management Program
The Diabetes Management Program is guided by sensitivity to the developmental needs of children and adolescents. We provide opportunities to gain positive peer support by allowing patients to interact with other children who face similar physical, emotional and social challenges. Patients realize they are individuals who happen to have diabetes rather than perceiving themselves as oddities within their peer group.
Our multidisciplinary approach incorporates pediatric/adolescent medicine, psychology, nursing, physical and recreational therapy, diet and nutrition, social work and education to stabilize the medical problems and address behavioral management issues, such as medical non-adherence.
Our Diabetes Management Program is designed to break the cycle of repeated emergency room visits, hospitalizations and school absences resulting from a poor self-care regimen. Typically, patients we serve through our Diabetes Management Program:
- Have been unsuccessful in less intensive programs
- Have concurrent mental health issues that have thwarted treatment of these patients’ medical condition
- Continue to exhibit threatening complications despite repeated efforts to manage their diabetes via both inpatient and outpatient interventions
- Have diabetes complicated by eating disorders
At discharge, program participants demonstrate age-appropriate mastery with the following self-care responsibilities:
- Monitoring and self-treatment of out-of-range blood sugars
- Administering insulin doses with appropriate site rotation and technique
- Proper exercise
- Keeping a blood sugar diary
- Planning and preparing meals and snacks