My son was diagnosed with T1 in March of 2009. I feel like I have finally got his medical care under control(as much as I ever will), but that there is very little support in my local community. I have searched for support groups to connect with other T1 families, but have not found any close to me. I was wondering if anyone belongs to a support group or has started one in their local comminuty that could give some advice about what works and doesn't, etc...
Michelle, I was interested in the same thing....hopefully you will get some great info. I am wondering about posting a notice in the Endo clinic? or a craigs list post? My son was just diagnosed in July 2009 and i am completely overwhelmed! The other thing i considered is a website called meetup.com....you post your interests and other people in the area with the same interests contact you and you start a group. The problem with meetup is that it seems to work better in larger cities.
How old is your son? Mine is 8. I was also totally overwhelmed initially, but now I feel like we have been living this way forever. I hardly remember what it was like before. We live in a suburb about 10 miles south of Boston, but the groups I have found are quite a distance away. Are you in a suburban area as well?
I think I will use meetup.com to do this. I have never used Craigslist, but I will look into that as well. That's a good idea to post in the Dr office.
I did a search through the JDRF website, and was (pleasantly) shocked at how many support groups there were in our area. Our little city of Lawrenceville, GA has it's very own support group with 20+ families. The facilitator was in touch with me within a couple hours of my e-mail, and another family had met with me within a week of my reaching out. So, JDRF is definitely the place I would start looking for local support.
Hey Michelle: Sorry for the delayed response. I wanted to let you know that your local chatper would love to help you or anyone start a local support/parent/coffee group. Also our National Outreach program manual as some tips and details of how to start a support group in your local area, if you'd like anyone can send me an email to outreach@jdrf.org and we'd be happy to send you the detials of how to get started. Let me know if you have other questions or if there is anything else I could do to help you get started.