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Discussion: Share your initiative/experience with children and adolescents in school!
Reply:IDEAS: Initiative for Diabetes Education and Awareness for Schools – Report
India has the world’s largest population of children with type 1 diabetes (T1D), and the numbers are steadily rising. With more than 1.5 million schools in the country, most teachers remain unaware of how to support diabetes self-care or handle emergencies, leaving children vulnerable during school hours. To address this gap, the IDEAS program was launched by a small group of pediatric endocrinologists, PDEs and PwDs in 2023, using and expanding upon ISPAE (Indian Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Endocrinology)’s school resources to create interactive sessions, multilingual videos, and practical tools for teachers, parents, and healthcare professionals.
Program details:
• Monthly sessions: Began on 6th August 2023 as a 90-minute interactive virtual program for school staff. Conducted on the first Sunday of every month, initially in English and later expanded to Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati, and Telugu.
• Challenges & Shift in strategy: Live monthly sessions had to be suspended due to logistical issues — mainly the difficulty of finding a time convenient for all teachers and the limited reach of one-time events. To overcome this, pre-recorded sessions in multiple languages were developed for flexible use. So far in English, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali, Malayalam, Hindi, and Hinglish. Telugu and Odiya on the way.
Resources Developed:
All the following resources are made freely available for download on ISPAE website. (www.ispae.org.in/diabetes-care)
• School diabetes management plan template
• Hypoglycemia treatment cards for quick reference in emergencies
• Printable educational pamphlets, recorded sessions & videos (QR code for each video for easy access)
• Competitive Exam preparation guidance: Practical steps and required documents for securing diabetes care provisions during exams.
• Inclusivity guidance: Compilation of inclusivity and disability guidelines from different national and international bodies, available for parents to use in discussions with schools when challenges arise. (T1D does not come under disability law protection in India yet)
Advocacy Achievements:
• Parent advocacy: Led to NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) guidelines mandating diabetes care allowances in schools and during examinations. Ongoing advocacy efforts are strengthening policy implementation and protect equal opportunities.
Engaging Healthcare Professionals’ help:
• Promotion through clinics: Pediatric endocrinologists and PDEs share IDEAS videos and pamphlets directly with families of children with T1D.
• School engagement: HCPs encourage parents to arrange meetings with school staff and use IDEAS videos and printables as training material.
• WhatsApp dissemination: Videos circulated widely via ISPAE and IDEALite professional groups for wider reach.
Way Forward:
IDEAS will continue to expand its library of multilingual, teacher-friendly resources while ensuring they remain freely accessible on the ISPAE website. Future goals include reaching more regional schools, strengthening partnerships with educators, and working together with parents to advocate for policy implementation.
Dr Sirisha Kusuma Boddu
Team Lead – IDEAS
Consultant in Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes,
Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Hyderabad, India.
