AB011. Assessment of permissibility of behavioral change counseling in the Philippine Family Planning Program: basis for learning and development strategy
Abstract

AB011. Assessment of permissibility of behavioral change counseling in the Philippine Family Planning Program: basis for learning and development strategy

Aldrin Riel Boyano1, Carmelita Canila2

1University of Perpetual Help - Dr. Jose G. Tamayo Medical University, Community and External Services, Manila, Philippines; 2University of the Philippines Manila - College of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Administration, Manila, Philippines

Correspondence to: Aldrin Riel Boyano. University of Perpetual Help - Dr. Jose G. Tamayo Medical University, Community and External Services, Manila, Philippines. Email: aboyano@uphsl.edu.ph.

Background: Family planning is one of the many aspects that affect maternal, child well-being and family economic welfare. Over the past 18 years, the Philippines has ranked 12th amongst Asian countries with the highest population growth rate, this could be due to the existing gaps in the manner of communication being imparted during family planning counseling especially during a pandemic.

Methods: The study employed a mixed methods design. A case study design was used to analyze the policies, guidelines and procedures of behavior change counseling and learning and development strategy. Meanwhile, a cross-sectional study was designed to determine the extent of behavioral change counseling skills and practices of frontline healthcare providers. It was participated by 9 key persons and 65 frontline health care providers.

Results: Results revealed that there is a high permissibility of behavioral change counseling in the current family planning because of a pending policy approval by the Department of Health Executive Committee which includes individual based behavioral change communication. The gaps identified included a no clear policy on the use of behavioral change counseling in the National Family Planning Program. Meanwhile, supervisory health care providers such as the Public Health Nurse and City Family Planning Coordinator are the direct supervisors of frontline health care providers and are in charge of providing supportive supervision, appropriate job aids and training. However, the supervisors are not trained in supervision, communication strategies and family planning in general. On the other hand, both professional and barangay frontline health care providers perceived having minimal skills and practices in empathic listening and summarizing skills.

Conclusions: The recommendations include a learning and development strategy of frontliners and inter-agency policies with the aim of contributing to the improvement of the communication skills and involving behavioral change.

Keywords: Family planning; reproductive health; behavioral change; counseling

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: Both authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

doi: 10.21037/jphe-21-ab011
Cite this abstract as: Boyano AR, Canila C. AB011. Assessment of permissibility of behavioral change counseling in the Philippine Family Planning Program: basis for learning and development strategy. J Public Health Emerg 2021;5:AB011.

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