Meeting the psychosocial needs of children with diabetes within routine clinical practice

Aims There is little guidance for paediatric diabetes teams on how best to meet their patients' psychosocial needs. The aims of conducting this survey of practitioners were to examine the challenges they face in delivering routine care, elicit their approaches to encouraging behaviour change and to inform the development of a training package to be evaluated in the Development and Evaluation of a Psychosocial Intervention with Children and Teenagers Experiencing Diabetes (DEPICTED) Study. Methods A semi-structured telephone interview was completed with 44 doctors and seven paediatric diabetes specialist nurses and emergent themes identified. Results The key challenges for practitioners were categorized as engagement and communication, meeting the needs of different ages and helping patients and their families integrate diabetes into their everyday life. Approaches to behaviour change were described in terms of education, advice and listening. Conclusions The survey demonstrates the complexities of communication with such a heterogeneous patient group and the range of approaches taken by practitioners in addressing behaviour change within routine care.