This thesis systemically explored experiences of type-1 diabetes (T1D) in childhood from the perspectives of parents, clinicians, and school staff. Chapter one is a systematic review of school staff experiences of supporting children with T1D. School staff identified the importance of having good formal support from planning and processes to enable them to provide support to children. This included communication processes and collaboration between health, education, and families. Many school staff struggled with the medical knowledge and responsibility that T1D required from them. They had different motivations for agreeing to undertake the responsibility, one of which being a drive for inclusivity of all children within education. The review identified the important role that school staff can facilitate in providing normalisation and inclusivity that promotes the psychosocial wellbeing of children with T1D.
Chapter two presents findings from an empirical study exploring parent and clinician experiences of T1D diagnosis at a large UK hospital. It utilised a participatory action research approach to collaboratively identify important themes and an action plan to improve the process of diagnosis at the hospital. The study identified that there were key systemic difficulties experienced by both parents and clinicians. Those systemic difficulties were associated with increasing distress for parents. The action plan sought to identify solutions to the problems with the hope of improving experiences and support for parents and clinicians in the future.
The final chapter combines the findings from chapter one and two to consider contributions to theory, research, and practice. The considerable overlap between findings from both studies provides support for further systemic exploration in this area. This chapter concludes with personal reflections by the author on the research process.