Who We Are
Laura Plunkett, columnist for Diabetes Health Magazine & diabetesincontrol.com,
a web site for diabetes professionals, recently spoke at the Juvenile Diabetes
Symposium at the University of California, San Francisco. The Plunkett family
has been featured on a Parent-to-Parent segment on WHDH-TV and a Hometown Hero
profile on WBZ radio. Laura and her mother are co-authors of the book, “The
Challenge of Childhood Diabetes: Family Strategies for Raising a Healthy Child.” Laura
has a BA in Psychology from Brown University and had a thriving psychotherapy
private practice for 14 years.
Linda Weltner wrote the weekly column, “Ever So Humble,” in the At Home section of The Boston Globe for 19 years. Her column was carried by newspapers around the country through the New York Times Wire Service. She is the author of two novels for young adults and two collections of her columns. She was awarded the Best Columnist Award by the New England Women’s Press Association and given the Gold Award from National Mature Media Awards 2000 for best feature in a magazine. She has addressed over 300 audiences.
Jessica Plunkett was 10 when her brother was diagnosed with diabetes. Now a high school junior, she attended all hospital
information sessions, spent a week at a family diabetes camp, and is Danny’s chief babysitter. Her writing has been published
in Diabetes Health magazine.
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Our Talks
“The Challenge Of
Childhood Diabetes”
Linda Weltner, Laura Plunkett, and 16-year old Jessica Plunkett talk about
the impact of childhood diabetes from a grandmother’s, mother’s, and sister’s
perspective. This threesome describes the family’s successful journey from
crisis to competence that followed 7-year old Danny Plunkett’s diagnosis of
juvenile diabetes in 2002. In this talk, they discuss the changes their family
made in improving nutrition, increasing exercise, building teamwork, and overcoming
the emotional and psychological stresses the diagnosis of diabetes places upon
families.
The speakers address such questions as: What do diabetes professionals and
educators need to know about family dynamics? How can you encourage families
to approach diabetes from a family systems viewpoint? How do you promote enthusiastic
co-operation in making changes in diet and exercise? How can families enlist
friends and neighbors in supporting their goals? How can a child, like Danny,
consistently achieve excellent blood sugar control?
“Laura is a very important voice in the childhood diabetes community.”
Scott King, Editor in Chief
Diabetes Health Magazine
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Speaking Recommendations
“One of the fabulous speakers [at UC San Francisco’s Pediatric Diabetes Symposium] was author Laura Plunkett, who wrote The Challenge of Childhood Diabetes, a must-read for parents in her situation. Very calming, Laura talks about the family dynamic because “focusing on insulin alone is not enough.”
Amy Tenderich
Diabetesmine.com
“I highly recommend this talk given by grandmother Linda Weltner, mother Laura Plunkett, and daughter Jessie Plunkett at the Newton Free Library. Each speaker brought her own perspective for the audience to relate to; the adults gave the history of how the family learned to cope and now thrives; Jessie told her very moving and personal story about being a teenager in this home and how she welcomes the lifestyle, diet, and being close to her extended family. The talk was funny and lively, the audience had many questions and Laura had great ideas for eating and living in a healthy way.”
Beth Purcell
Programming and PR Director
Newton Free Library
“Not only does Laura look like her mom, [a former Boston Globe columnist], but she also clearly inherited her writing and speaking genes.”
Barbara Meltz
The Boston Globe
“Your process of changing family patterns is inspirational and of value to all of us.”
Mary Beth Keenan
School nurse, Martha’s vineyard
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