Helping Hand Program
About the Program
The Helping Hand Program provides diabetes supplies, travel and accommodation costs, medical alert IDs, and much more to patients and families in need of assistance.
Did you know?
- Over 40% of Barbara Davis Center patients are uninsured or underinsured
- On average, the first year of care for a newly diagnosed type 1 is $20,000
- Type 1 diabetes is the only disease where patients and caregivers are making life and death insulin dosing decisions, and they are doing it every hour of every day
Diabetes is expensive. New Onset patients spend about $1,400 on education and appointment fees. Pump Therapy can create better control but can cost up to $1,200 each month. Insulin for children can cost about $300 a month. Testing 6-8 times a day is normal and all those test strips add up to about $300 a month. The cost can be debilitating for many families, and going without insulin is not an option, but the Children’s Diabetes Foundation is here to help.
The Guild of the Children’s Diabetes Foundation has provided over $1.2 million to this program. The Helping Hand Program provided assistance for families in need by:
- Purchasing diabetes supplies such as insulin, syringes, and test strips
- Paying for emergency care such as life alert or a hospital stay
- Offering meal assistance during the COVID-19 outbreak
- Providing supplemental funds as necessary
- Supplying medical alert IDs for new onset children
- Covering travel and accommodations expenses for appointments
- Offering meal and gifts for the holiday season
In addition to providing financial assistance to families, the program also provides funds for workshops at the Barbara Davis Center that offer education and emotional support for newly diagnosed patient families.
Proper supplies, education, and care allow a patient to properly manage diabetes, and by bettering care early on, risk for long term complications is much lower.
How to Help
Consider donating…
$10 for a day’s worth of test strips so a child can test their blood sugar to manage their diabetes
$50 to give a child test strips for a week
$100 to honor of the 100 needles a type 1 needs to take every month
$250 to cover 1 month’s worth of insulin for a child
$500 for a 3 month supply of sensors, which greatly improve a type 1’s blood sugar management
$2,500 to get a child an artificial pancreas to make diabetes management easier
$5,000 for a child to get an insulin pump so they don’t need to inject needles with every meal
$7,500 for start-up education and appointment costs for 5 newly diagnosed children
$10,000 to cover a hospital stay for a child with dangerously high or low blood sugars
New Onset Bags For Barbara Davis Center Patients
Through the Helping Hand Program, newly diagnosed patients at the Barbara Davis Center are provided with a “New Onset Bag” with information about type 1 diabetes and the Foundation’s support programs. This drawstring backpack includes cards listing the symptoms of type 1 diabetes, high blood sugar, and low blood sugar that can be shared with schools and caretakers, a booklet of notes from children with type 1 diabetes to their new type 1 friend, a water bottle, a coloring book to learn about diabetes, and an adorable Pink Panther stuffed animal to take home.
Most importantly, there is an inquiry card for families to fill out. By returning this card, families will receive invitations to upcoming events exclusively for patients of the Barbara Davis Center. If you are a patient (or parent) and would like to receive these updates, but haven’t received an inquiry card, you can fill out this form.
