When I was much younger in my 20s, I met someone in school who had to take an injection before each meal. Everything was done in a secretive manner and as classmates, we do not dare to ask, worrying that it may be too rude and learn to act ignorant about the need that he has to take an injection before a meal.

Communication comes in 2 ways and people usually learn or become interested when there is a need to know. I feel that there is little help from MoH when it comes to managing T1D in public school, where children spend half their day learning. It would be great if MoH can collaborate with MoE (with approval from parents) where the school will receive information about T1D when children are being diagnosed, selected teachers are being sent for training on the topic, so that overwhelming parents know that their children is in good hands when the children are ready to go back to school. This arrangement from the government bodies will actually support the mental wellness of T1D parents, especially the newly diagnosed ones.

From the financial cost perspective, I understand why individuals who are being diagnosed with T1D will no longer be able to buy new insurance, since the cost of healthcare for them will drastically increase over time with their condition. I am thankful that MoH has launched a new initiative to provide a partial subsidy for the Dexcom device from July 2024 onwards, that has really helped families like ours to reduce some cost to manage our child’s condition. I would also hope that there will be more employers, like mine, who allow parents of T1D to have the luxury of working from home (WFH) on times when parents had to spend the night combating hypoglycemia, staying vigilant for their children.

We may be a small country with few diagnosed cases, which could be one of the reasons why new technology is always really slow for us to explore. If I could selfishly request MoH to assist this initiative, to look into bringing new technology into Singapore, where our children have the opportunity to experience wireless insulin pods, so that they will be able to manage their condition in a more seamless and less invasive manner. In times to come, when there are new medical breakthroughs to give children a chance to have an artificial pancreas to produce insulin, hopefully that does not need to take a lifetime before giving Singaporean T1s a chance to experience life without injectable insulin.