A team of pediatric psychologists from the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago received a $1,835,000 grant (award period January 1, 2026–December 31, 2028) from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and Eli Lilly, managed by the American Diabetes Association.
The award will support the study, Evaluating the Impact of Diabetes Camp: Overnight and Day Camp Expansion (principal investigator: Jenna Shapiro, PhD; co-investigators: Kelsey Brzezinski, PhD, Carolyn Turek, PhD, and Jill Weissberg-Benchell, PhD, CDCES). This study expands an already-funded study, Evaluating the Impact of Diabetes Camp: A Multi-Pronged, Mixed-Method Study [American Diabetes Association (ADA); principal investigator Kelsey Brzezinski, PhD]. The original study is aimed at assessing the psychosocial and metabolic impact of attending an ADA-sponsored over-night diabetes camp. For that study, the research team assesses perceptions of youth, caregivers, and camp staff, and assesses potential mechanisms of change as well as systems-level camp characteristics. This expansion study allows the team to include two closely related diabetes camp types: non-ADA overnight diabetes camps and diabetes day camps. Through qualitative and quantitative methods, this study examines the multifaceted impact of diabetes camp on youth attendees and their caregivers compared to youth not attending camp and caregivers on psychosocial and metabolic outcomes. It seeks to determine immediate and long-term effects (6 and 12 months) of camp participation, differentiate between overnight and day camp impacts, and identify key camp systems-level features contributing to optimal outcomes.
Pediatric research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute.
