Transition, It's More Than Just An Event: Supporting Young People With Type 1 Diabetes

• Comprehensive, holistic person-centered care coordination is required to ensure young people with chronic conditions do not fall through the gap when they transition to adult health services.
• The stories of young people with type 1 diabetes act as a reminder and reinforce the importance of developing relationships based on mutual trust and respect during transition to adult health services.
• Young people teach us that transition is a process not an event, and for effective transition to occur the young person requires a holistic approach that is very much person-centered and ongoing.

This paper discusses the importance of holistic person-centered care coordination services for young people with type 1 diabetes as they transition to adult health services. In response to the growing need for comprehensive, flexible, person-centered care for young people with chronic conditions, the new service Trapeze: a supported leap into adult health was established. Based in Sydney, Australia, Trapeze is a specialist adolescent chronic care service offering comprehensive care coordination services to young people with chronic conditions aged 14–25 years. Trapeze aims to support young people with type 1 diabetes by focusing on the individual needs of the young person and developing a mutually recognized relationship based on trust and respect, in order to facilitate a process whereby a young person feels safe enough to discuss some of the challenges they face in self-management, keeping their whole of life issues central to this process. The importance of holistic person-centered work is best exemplified through the stories of the young people enrolled in Trapeze. It is hoped that through the 'eyes' of the young people and by sharing their stories the approach to self-management and care coordination can be better understood.