Day 14 Digest (May 18, 2006)
Today’s digest includes
- A question from Peggy D’Adamo (USA) and a comment from Ward Rinehart (Switzerland)
- Links to some useful counseling training resources
- Information on the USAID Family Planning and Integration Working Group meeting taking place in Washington DC.
To participate in the discussion, you can:
- send your comment to fphivintegration@ibp.wa-research.ch
- log into the forum website at http://my.ibpinitiative.org/Community.aspx?c=d1f835b2-0c72-420a-9ade-88186b49abe7 with the username and password you received.
ONLINE ARCHIVE
Postings are also archived at http://www.fpandhiv.org/videoconference/cpieventpage.php along with all the resources mentioned in previous postings. You do not need to know your username and password to read the postings on the web site. While you are there, please take a look at the web site as well. It was developed to bring together in one place all the relevant resources on integration of family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention and services.
We look forward to more of these rich and interesting discussions. Thanks to everyone for participating and for sharing your questions, concerns, and experiences!
Best regards,
HCP and INFO Teams
Peggy D’Adamo
Given that most service providers lack information and training, have poor counseling skills, are uncomfortable discussing sex, and are poorly paid, what can program managers do to alleviate even one or two of these problems? Counseling training can be very costly and time-consuming.
Anne also raises additional problems
If you have conducted counseling training for providers (either in family planning or in HIV prevention/treatment), could you describe the training and share some of your experiences lessons learned with the group?
Thanks!
Peggy D’Adamo / INFO Project
Ward Rinehart
Dr. Asfawesen is quite right to draw attention to system responses to the risk that integration will overload providers.
The health care provider should not and need not be burdened with sole responsibility for informing clients. People receive information in many ways-for example, through the mass media, through conversation with family and friends, in community meetings, from posters and billboards in public places. Health care systems can get important information to people through these many channels. They need a well-thought-out, strategic plan for doing this.
Messages can focus on healthy behavior and on where to find care, but they also can provide "consumer" information that makes people better informed clients-clients who already know, when they meet with a provider, what services they can ask for, what questions to ask, what their options are, and even some of the pros and cons of those options. A well-informed client will make the provider's job easier-and quicker.
I think it would be important for providers to feel that the informational communication strategy is a support to their work. They need to know about the strategy-what messages are being communicated, to whom, and how. They need to feel this is communication for them; this is their strategy, and not a competing source of information. For example, when a client mentions the radio spot that she heard, we hope that the provider will say, "Ah, so you heard our message!"
A comprehensive communication strategy-one that makes use of the many ways to get important information to people--is a crucial systemic need for any health care service. Such a strategy both meets clients' needs and supports health care providers.
Ward Rinehart
The INFO Project
Center for Communication Programs
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Counseling Training Materials
Included in this digest are a couple of resources that might be useful if you are thinking of organizing counseling training for providers either in FP or HIV/AIDS, or trying to improve quality of care.
Integration of HIV / STI prevention, sexuality, and dual protection in family planning counseling: a training manual. http://www.engenderhealth.org/res/offc/hiv/integration/
EngenderHealth developed this manual to help increase providers' comfort in addressing sensitive issues related to sexuality, gender, and HIV/AIDS and to clarify the values and overcome the biases necessary to do so. Features participatory exercises on sexuality and gender; HIV/STI transmission, prevention, and dual protection; integrated counseling skills; and other trainers' resources. Designed primarily for training of health care providers who offer counseling services, but can be used with a wide range of individuals who work in sexual and reproductive health.
Men's reproductive health curriculum: Section 2. Counseling and communicating with men. Trainer's resource book [and] Participant's handbook] http://www.engenderhealth.org/res/offc/map/mrhc/index.html
This part of the curriculum focuses on strengthening service providers' ability to interact with, communicate with, and counsel men
Quality of Care for Integrated Services: A Facility Assessment Tool
http://www.pathfind.org/site/DocServer/QOC_document_oct_6.pdf?docID=1581
This tool was developed by Pathfinder International in conjunction with Pathfinder/Nigeria, but offers information that is not regionally-specific. It allows project managers, trainers, supervisors and others involved in the health management field to collect detailed information on the range and quality of integrated services available at a given facility. Results from the tool can be used to develop interventions aimed at improving the quality of a facility's overall service delivery program.
USAID Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Integration Partners Working Group
The USAID Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Integration Partners Working Group will be holding it’s a meeting today and tomorrow in Washington DC. Youth will be a focus of the meeting. The first day of the meeting will include a plenary session focused on presentations about youth and FP/HIV integration. There will also be session on new developments in research, programs, or advocacy in FP/HIV integration.
This group spearheaded the development of the www.fpandhiv.org website. You can find out more about it on the website. We will include a report on today’s meeting in tomorrow’s digest e-mail.