Integrated Services

© 2004 TAHSEEN Project, Courtesy of Photoshare Offering multiple health care services at the same facility or through a community-based program can benefit clients, providers and programs. Integrating services can address a wider range of health needs conveniently for clients. It also can be more efficient for programs and so can serve more people for the same expenditures. Services commonly integrated with family planning include: HIV care and prevention; maternal, newborn, and child health care; child immunization services; and postabortion care services.

To go directly to one of the sections, click on one of the links below:

Integrating Family Planning With Other Health Services

Integrating FP/RH With HIV

Integrating FP/RH With Maternal and Child Health

Tools

You can find additional resources on Integrating FP/RH with HIV by going to the K4Health eToolkit Family Planning and HIV Services Integration.

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Interviews with Family Planning Experts (7 resources)

Included in this section of the Toolkit are a series of audio and video interviews with family planning experts speaking to the importance of integrating family planning with other reproductive and child health services. Interviewees highlight both the benefits and challenges to integrating services, as well as the importance of offering organized and comprehensive family planning and reproductive health services due to the difficulties patients encounter when seeking out services.

Integrating Family Planning with Other Health Services

A Framework for Integrating Reproductive Health and Family Planning into Youth Development Programs

2008 | International Youth Foundation | 35 p

English

This document provides a strategic framework for youth reproductive health (YRH) and family planning (FP) and its integration into youth development programs. This framework can be adapted to the local context of any program.

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Assessing Integration Methodology (AIM)

2008 | Population Council

English

The Assessing Integration Methodology (AIM) was developed by the Population Council to guide decisions regarding the feasibility, quality, and effectiveness of specific service combinations. The AIM handbook covers integration of family planning with the following services:

2008 | United States Agency for International Development [USAID] | 99 p

English

This manual outlines the population-health-environment (PHE) approach where conservation organizations partner with the health sector to integrate health and voluntary family planning into conservation projects. Taking advantage of synergies between human and ecosystem health, the approach improves maternal and child health; enables couples to have the number of children they want, when they want them; reduces unsustainable pressures on the environment; and promotes sustainable ecosystem services such as reliable water supplies.

1997 | Initiatives Inc. | 164 p

English

This manual was prepared to facilitate the expansion of family planning services to meet the needs of women and men in developing countries who have limited health service options and lack of access to high-quality family planning services. Its intended audience is nongovernmental organizations with experience in basic management and program implementation systems. The handbook can be used either for self-guided study and reference or as the basis for a facilitated workshop.

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Integrating FP/RH with HIV

Integrating Family Planning and HIV Services: Research From Africa Leads the Way

2010 | FHI | Africa Health | 4 p

English

Because people seeking HIV services often share common needs and concerns with those who seek family planning services, integrating these two types of services enables health care providers to serve their patients more efficiently and comprehensively. As momentum builds behind integration efforts in Africa, evidence-based practices are beginning to emerge that will help providers to offer high-quality integrated services.

2010 | FHI

Family Planning and HIV Integration: Approaching the Tipping Point |

Policy Support for Strengthening Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Linkages |

Integrating HIV Prevention and Family Planning Services: The Aastha Project in Mumbai, India |

Integrating Family Planning and Antiretroviral Therapy Services in Uganda |

Preventing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission through Family Planning in Maternal and Child Health Services: Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa |

A Five-Country Study of Family Planning and HIV Integrated Services |

Adding Family Planning Services to HIV Counseling and Testing Centers in Kenya |

Integrating Family Planning into HIV Care and Treatment Services in Kenya

Family planning has an important role to play in curbing the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This set of briefs summarizes the current state of integration between the family planning (FP) and HIV/AIDS fields. The briefs highlight recent developments in FP/HIV integration, including changes in the policy environment, new programmatic examples, and the latest operations research results. This user-friendly package of information will help guide policymakers, program managers, donors, and researchers in strengthening FP/HIV integration policies and programs.

2009 | Family Health International (FHI); Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Toolkit

Program planners considering integration must weigh a number of factors—the extent of the HIV epidemic, contraceptive prevalence, the capacity of providers, the facilities available, and the human and financial resources required—to determine whether and how to link family planning and HIV services in a given setting. This toolkit for policy makers, program managers, providers, and others provides links to guidelines and tools to plan, manage, deliver, evaluate, and support integrated services.

2009 | Family Health International (FHI)

FP/HIV Integration Toolkit

Integration of family planning and HIV services offers opportunities to reach more women with life-saving services such as contraception, HIV prevention counseling, and antiretroviral therapy. Addressing women’s reproductive health needs in a holistic manner strengthens the impact of both FP and HIV services.

2009 | World Health Organization [WHO] | 8 p

English

The importance of linking sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and HIV is widely recognized. The international community agrees that the Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved without ensuring universal access to SRH and HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. In order to gain a clearer understanding of the effectiveness, optimal circumstances, and best practices for strengthening SRH and HIV linkages, a systematic review of the literature was conducted.

2009 | EngenderHealth

English

Based on experiences in Brazil, this resource offers guidance and recommendations for creating programs that protect and promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls living with HIV and AIDS in four key areas: • Creating a political and social environment that respects, protects and promotes sexual and reproductive rights; • Strengthening health systems to improve the availability of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health;

2009 | World Health Organization [WHO] | 34 p

English

This document is designed to help program planners, implementers, and managers -- including government officials and other country-level stakeholders -- make appropriate decisions about whether to pursue the integration of FP and HIV services. It also explains how to pursue integration in a strategic and systematic manner, in order to achieve maximum public health benefit. Developed by the World Health Organization, the U.S.

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Integration Fact Sheet

2008 | United States Agency for International Development [USAID] | 2 p

English

This brief fact sheet about integration of family planning services with HIV/AIDS prevention provides answers to questions such as "Why?", "How" and "What can YOU do?".

2008 | International Planned Parenthood Federation [IPPF] | 88 p

English

This adaptable tool can be used to assess linkages betweeen HIV and sexual and reproductive health at the policy, systems and service-delivery levels. It is intended also to identify gaps and ultimately to contribute to the development of country-specific action plans to forge and strengthen these linkages.

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Integrating Services

2004 | Family Health International [FHI] | 31 p

English

This issue of Network provides an overview of current thinking about integration intended to encourage health professionals to ask questions or share their experiences in regard to service integration.

2004 | Association of Schools of Public Health | 4 p

English

Recognizing that HIV/AIDS is a paramount health priority for virtually all the developing world, “integrating” HIV with existing services such as family planning is highly attractive. At first blush, it would seem that the same reproductive health arena that both interventions share should provide opportunities for integration.

2003 | United States Agency for International Development [USAID] | 31 p

This document includes technical insights regarding FP/HIV integration and should be used in conjunction with USAID’s Guidance on the Definition and Use of the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund for information regarding appropriate use of USAID funds.

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Integrating FP/RH with Maternal and Child Health

A Shot In The Arm? Integration of Family Planning and Immunization Services

2010 | Family Health International (FHI) | 32 slides

English

Providing family planning information and/or services to postpartum women during their infants' immunization visits may be an effective way to reach women with high unmet need for family planning.This slide presention offers information on how this approach might work and provides information about research results from the FHI studies conducted in Ghana and Zambia.

2010 | Family Health International (FHI) | 4 p

English

This is a technical brief that explains how reaching postpartum women during their infants' immunization visits may be an effective method for reducing the unmet need for family planning.

2008 | World Health Organization [WHO] | 46 p

English

Distinct interventions are needed to improve reproductive health (RH), adolescent reproductive health (ARH), maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH), and prevention and management of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STI). Yet common underlying causes and shared solutions provide the basis for linkages that can strengthen all services and increase the reach of HIV prevention and testing. This Operational Framework provides information about how to create these linkages and what factors to take into account in doing so.

2008 | FRONTIERS Population Council | 51 p

English

There is a substantial unmet need for family planning services among postpartum women and many missed opportunities to provide these services during the pregnancy-extended postpartum period continuum. Practically all of the women interviewed wanted to space their next pregnancy for at least two years and 80 percent of those interviewed before discharge following a hospital delivery said that they would like to start using contraception in the following six months (with 54% wanting to start immediately).

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Tools

Increasing Access to Contraception for Clients With HIV: A Toolkit

2009 | United States Agency for International Development [USAID] | 18 p

English

This resource has been developed by Family Health International (FHI) for trainers, presenters, providers, programme managers, and policy-makers to update and expand upon the information provided in an earlier module, Contraception for Women and Couples with HIV. This toolkit can be used to:

2008 | International Youth Foundation | 8 p

English

This matrix can assist technical experts, program managers, health providers, peer educators and others to determine what topics and interventions best fit into their own respective programs while taking cultural paradigms into consideration. The depth of each topic should be viewed within the context of a continuous process, wherein a young person’s knowledge base continues to evolve as they pass through each progressive age group. Although the topics may be the same, the information provided will differ by age.

2008 | Population Council

BCS+ Trainer’s Guide |

BCS+ User’s Guide |

BCS+ Algorithm |

BCS+ Counseling Cards |

BCS+ Method Brochures

The Balanced Counseling Strategy (BCS) was developed by the Population Council to improve client–provider interaction in family planning provision. The process, tested and refined in several countries, involves a set of steps to determine the method that best suits the client according to her/his preferences and reproductive health intentions.

2007 | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Communication Programs, The INFO Project | 2 p

English (2007) |

French (2004) |

Spanish (2007)

Women with HIV/AIDS, including those who are taking ARVs, can start and use almost all family planning methods safely and effectively. Women on ARVs need access to contraception for compelling reasons. To successfully reach ARV recipients, contraceptive services need to be integrated with HIV care from the start. (excerpt)

2007 | ACQUIRE Project/EngenderHealth | 50 p

English

This document was developed for two main purposes: a) to stimulate critical thinking regarding programmatic gaps related to the reproductive health needs of women and couples living with HIV and b) to assist community and facility-based HIV care and treatment providers and supervisors in tailoring services to reflect the family planning needs of the users and communities they serve. Based on demand from the field, this document was developed to look systematically at service delivery consideration to achieve integration.

2007 | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health | 25 p

English |

French |

Spanish

This report highlights tools that managers can use to integrate reproductive health, family planning, and HIV/AIDS services for young people.The tools described here, and the examples that illustrate their use, are drawn from USAID and other donor-funded programs. The tools are designed to help programs:

2006 | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/ Center for Communication Programs/ The INFO Project | 20 p

English

This first issue of Focus on... presents information about the benefits and challenges of linking HIV/AIDS services and family planning and related reproductive health care. To highlight the major issues of integration (also called linkages), Focus on… summarizes key points from selected resources—most from the past 3 years—that reflect field successes, lessons learned, and further avenues for research.

2006 | World Health Organization [WHO]

English

This tool is designed to help health workers counsel people living with HIV on sexual and reproductive choices and family planning. It is also meant to help people living with HIV make and carry out informed, healthy, and appropriate decisions about their sexual and reproductive lives. This tool addresses how to enjoy a healthy sexual life, how to prevent pregnancy and further transmission of HIV, and points to consider in making a decision regarding whether or not to have children.

Hewlett Foundation/ Packard Foundation/ Johns Hopkins Bloomber School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs/ INFO Project

HIV/AIDS & Sexual and Reproductive Health Integration Web Site

This site was created to help health professionals in their efforts to integrate provision of sexual and reproductive health services with activities for preventing and treating HIV/AIDS. The collection of documents and other materials reflect field experience and the latest thinking of the health community on integration of HIV and sexual and reproductive health services. The site is designed to identify a full range of resources upon which to develop policies, guidelines, or practices.

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