Winter 1979

A Special Program to Help Juvenile Diabetics

“… Last year, Connecticut became the second state (after Florida) to establish a program for children with diabetes, when the State Legislature authorized an appropriation of $130,000 to the State Department of Health to establish and administer two regional centers to provide counseling and health services to the estimated 1,500 to 2,500 diabetic children in Connecticut and their families. The centers are at the Yale School of Medicine, under the direction of Dr. Myron Genel and Dr. William V. Tamborlane Jr., and at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, under the direction of Dr. David Rowe and Dr. Susan Ratzan.

“The program was developed in the Yale Section of Pediatric Endocrinology by Dr. Genel, who is program director of the Children’s Clinical Research center at Yale. Modeled in part on the Florida program, it consists of a team at each center of three physicians, a nurse specialist, social worker, dietician, lab technician, and administrative coordinator. Their objective is to educate the young diabetics and their families, with the ultimate goal of helping the patients to care for themselves.”