The Balanced Counseling Strategy: A Toolkit for Family Planning Service Providers

The Balanced Counseling Strategy (BCS) is a strategy designed to be interactive and client-friendly. It uses three key job aids to guide comprehensive and high-quality reproductive health and family planning counseling to clients. The BCS toolkit incorporates international family planning norms and guidance as recommended by the World Health Organization, including the 2004 Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use and the 2007 Family Planning Global Handbook. 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. The BCS toolkit includes: 1. An algorithm that summarizes the 11 steps needed to implement the strategy, 2. Counseling cards with basic information about 15 family planning methods, plus a card with the checklist to be reasonably sure a woman is not pregnant, and 3. Brochures on each of the methods for the client to take once a method is chosen: The pill, Emergency contraception, Female condoms, Tubal ligation, Hormonal implants, Intrauterine device, Progestin-only injectables, Monthly injectable, Spermicides, Minipill,TwoDay Method®, Vasectomy, Standard Days Method®, Male condoms, Lactational amenorrhea method

Source: Population Council

Date of Publication: October 15, 2021