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      Frontiers in Reproductive Health > Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus


FRONTIERS
 The Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus:
A Toolkit for Family Planning Service Providers Working in High HIV/STI Prevalence Settings

The Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus: A Toolkit for Family Planning Service Providers Working in High HIV/STI Prevalence Settings (BCS+) is an interactive, client-friendly approach for improving counseling on family planning and prevention, detection, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV. The toolkit, developed and tested in Kenya and South Africa, provides the information and materials needed for health care facility directors, supervisors, and service providers to implement the BCS+ in their family planning services. This toolkit includes the following:

  1. BCS+ Trainer’s Guide (PDF) that supervisors and others can use to train health care facility directors and service providers on how to use the BCS+ for counseling family planning clients.
  2. BCS+ User’s Guide (PDF) on how to implement the Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus. It can be distributed during training or used on its own with the BCS+ job aids.

  3. BCS+ job aids comprising:

  • BCS+ algorithm (PDF) that summarizes the 19 steps needed to implement the BCS+ during a family planning counseling session. These steps are organized into four stages: pre-choice, method choice, post-choice, and STI/HIV counseling.
  • BCS+ counseling cards (PDF) that the provider uses during a counseling session. There are 19 counseling cards, the first of which contains six questions that the service provider asks to rule out the possibility a client is pregnant. Each of the next 14 cards contains information about a different family planning method. The last four cards provide essential information for counseling on preventing, detecting, and treating STIs and HIV.
  • BCS+ method brochures (PDF) on each of the 14 methods represented by the counseling cards. The brochures provide counseling to clients on the method they have chosen and then are given to clients for later reference. This means clients do not have to rely on their recollection of what was discussed with the provider.
The BCS+ was adapted from the Balanced Counseling Strategy, a research-proven tool for improving counseling on contraceptive methods. The BCS+ tools are generic. They can be revised depending on national and/or regional guidelines and protocols.

Hard copies of the BCS+ toolkit will be available in English in December 2008 upon request from frontiers@popcouncil.org

November 2008

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For more information contact:
Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS)
Population Council
4301 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 280
Washington, DC 20008 USA
Telephone: +1 202 237 9400
Facsimile: +1 202 237 8410
E-mail: frontiers@popcouncil.org


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This page updated
25 November 2008