Welcome and Introduction to Week 1 (May 1, 2006)
Welcome to the online forum on “Client and Provider Perspectives on Integration of Family Planning Counseling and HIV/AIDS Services”.
This forum will run for four weeks, beginning today (May 01) and ending on May 26. We have an exciting schedule planned for this forum and each week will focus on a different topic. Week 1 (May 01-05) will be a follow-up to the March videoconference on the same topic (see http://www.fpandhiv.org/videoconference/cpieventpage.php for more information on the videoconference). Week 2 (May 08 – May 12) will focus on provider perspectives on family planning in HIV/AIDS counseling. Week 3 (May 15 – May 19) will focus on client perspectives on family planning counseling in HIV/AIDS settings. Week 4 (May 22- May 26) will be a discussion regarding future directions, including potential challenges and barriers, to the integration of FP counseling and HIV/AIDS Services. Each week will be introduced by a panel of experts on the topic who will be available to answer questions and participate in the discussion. We have included additional readings and resources on this topic at http://www.fpandhiv.org/videoconference/cpieventpage.php.
We hope that this forum will provide you with up-to-date and state-of-the-art information on what is happening in the field and an opportunity for synergy between sharing global best practices and country-based experiences. This online forum will build upon existing partnerships and activities among three groups: the Implementing Best Practices in Reproductive Health Initiative (IBP) Initiative, the Maximizing Access and Quality Subcommittee on Client Provider Interaction (CPI), and the Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Integration Working Group.
Now, let’s turn to this week’s discussion. This week, we will take a closer look at the experiences of two country programs (Kenya and Ghana) in integrating FP Counseling and HIV/AIDS Services. Later in the week, we will be exploring the issue of “dual protection”. We have the privilege of having four guest panelists to lead us through this week: Dr. Heidi Reynolds from Family Health International, Dr. Edward Bonku from Engenderhealth/ACQUIRE in Ghana, Betty Farrell from Engenderhealth/ACQUIRE New York and Dr. Young Mi Kim from the Health Communication Partnership (HCP).
Today’s posting will be from Dr. Heidi Reynolds, a Scientist in the Health Services Research Division at Family Health International. Her research focuses on how to improve reproductive health programs including testing the effectiveness of integrating family planning into VCT, assessing whether VCT and PMTCT services meet youth’s needs, modeling the cost-effectiveness of family planning to prevent HIV-positive births, and testing interventions to improve the uptake of PMTCT services. Dr. Reynolds holds a Ph.D. in Maternal and Child Health and a M.P.H. in Health Behavior and Health Education both from the University of North Carolina. She is an Adjunct Professor of in the Department of Maternal and Child Health in the School of Public Health at the UNC.
Dr. Reynolds begins our week with a summary of “Client-Provider Interaction in the Provision of Family Planning in Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) Services in Kenya”. This information was originally presented by Dr Dr. Marden Solomon, DRH-MOH Kenya and Ms. Jennifer Liku from FHI Kenya during the March videoconference (Powerpoint presentation).
Throughout the week, feel free to send questions or comments to Dr. Reynolds, as well as submit your own experiences, findings or lessons learned on the topic of the week. Please refer to the submission instructions and guidelines you received last week on how to post comments/questions for the online forum. Remember that you can simply click "reply" to this e-mail and post your comment, or log into the forum with the username and password you received. Tomorrow we will focus on the experience of Ghana. We look forward to rich and interesting discussions.
Thanks for participating!
Best regards,
HCP and INFO Teams