The DTHF Family Planning Integration into HIV Care and Treatment Services Project (FPI Project) has launched the Contraceptive Choices Flipchart. This innovative tool was developed by the FPI Project team and is an outcome of the FP Refresher workshops that the team has been engaged in in partnership with the Western Cape Province Department of Health.
The FPI Project has been instrumental in ensuring that family planning, which has not featured prominently in the health programmes implemented by the Department – is now firmly “back on the map”. One-day FP Refresher workshops were organised throughout the Province for clinicians (doctors and nurses) as well as NGO counsellors who work in primary care facilities. Most importantly, ‘family planning Champions’ were elected at each clinic to continue to promote and extend family planning at their facilities. The team have not only initiated the integration of family planning into HIV Care and Treatment services, but they also developed tools and easily understood information materials, such as the flipchart. Every primary health care facility in the Western Cape is now equipped with these materials to assist clinicians when offering family planning options to their clients. Family planning and HIV treatment services have become a “one-stop shop” service from the clinician’s consulting room.
Ably led by Anna van Esch, the project has been very well received by all. The FPI Project has played a vital role in changing lives, especially of those women living with HIV.
