Integration

The varied needs and health care constraints of developing countries call for a holistic, comprehensive approach to sexual and reproductive health. Integrating family planning (FP) with other sexual/reproductive health areas can be both more efficient and effective as well as accomplish multiple goals. Integration is an approach that uses the opportunity of a client visit to engage the individual in addressing all of his/her health and social needs beyond what prompted the current health visit.

ACQUIRE-s activities for FP integration include identifying ways to strengthen services that already include FP as integral components, such as postabortion care and postnatal care, and forging new linkages, such as between FP and HIV, FP and gender-based violence, and FP and fistula services.

In Ghana, the ACQUIRE project and Family Health International-s Impact Project collaborated on integrating FP with antiretroviral (ARV) services at two public-sector hospitals. In Uganda, ACQUIRE is providing technical assistance to The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) in an eastern district ARV center to incorporate FP within existing services and reorganize services to support ongoing integration. Also in Uganda, the fistula program is integrating family planning as a prevention measure and as a vital element of postrepair services. In Cambodia, ACQUIRE is working with a local NGO to update and strengthen the -birth spacing- element of postabortion care services.

For more information, see:

Contraception for Women and Couples with HIV

CD-ROM (an ACQUIRE/FHI collaboration led by FHI)

Responding to the Sexual and Reproductive Rights of People Living with HIV (AIDSLink article)

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