Integrating trained, equipped, and supported community health workers into the health system to increase access to family planning by bringing services directly to clients.
Community
Health Workers
© 2014 Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment
Overcome access barriers due to COVID-19 mobility restrictions
Expand access to FP information and promote voluntarism and informed choice, while adhering to social distancing guidelines and limiting facility-based visits
Mitigate service disruptions or dispel misinformation about COVID-19 when FP programs are adapted and/or expanded
Overcome access issues for areas that do not have well-established telemedicine services
Mitigate increased proportion of home deliveries by offering IPPFP and PAFP through CHWs or digital health platforms
Optimize service delivery settings to maintain essential health services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic response, including integration of primary care services such as IPPFP or PAFP
Maximize women's contacts with the healthcare system during sensitive periods to prevent unintended pregnancies and support COVID-19 control by minimizing the number of healthcare visits
Offering contraceptive counselling and services immediately following facility-based childbirth and proactively offering contraceptive counselling and FP services at the same time and location where women receive postabortion care.
© 2014 Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment
Immediate Postpartum and Postabortion FP
Service Delivery
Overcome travel restrictions due to COVID-19 social distancing protections
Limit facility-based contact while delivering FP information and services
Supporting mobile outreach service delivery to provide a wide range of contraceptives, including both short- and long-acting and reversible methods, which allows for flexible and strategic delivery of FP services in areas with limited access to health providers.
© 2014 Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment
Mobile Outreach Services
Minimize burden on the health system by eliminating the need for multiple healthcare visits for those FP methods available without a prescription
Serve as effective service delivery points, particularly as clinic and hospital resources are redirected towards disease control efforts
Providing FP information, counselling, and methods including oral contraceptives, condoms, and injectable contraceptives through drug shops and pharmacies to expand FP access and availability, particularly in poor or rural areas.
© 2017 Paula Bronstein/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment
Drug Shops
and Pharmacies
Social and Behavior Change
Enabling Environment
HIP Enhancement
Modify existing mass media and SBC content to include both coronavirus and FP-related information
Focus communication towards preparedness, promoting specific local service delivery points where FP information and methods can be accessed
Using mass media channels to support healthy
reproductive behaviors.
© 2012 Akintunde Akinleye/NURHI
Social and Behavior Change
Grant prescription waivers, permitting remote or virtual counselling for certain contraceptive methods
(e.g. oral pills)
Classify contraception as an essential health service and emphasize prompt port and customs clearances and distribution logistics
Developing, implementing, and monitoring supportive government policies is aimed at improving FP access, scaling up existing health interventions, and communicating clear up-to-date guidelines.
© 2017 Paula Bronstein/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment
Policy
Increase allocation and efficient use of Domestic Public Financing at national and subnational levels
Ensure policy and financing adaptations to ensure women can access services
Ensuring the continuity of funding, including Domestic Public Financing, for FP services and supplies.
© 2017 Paula Bronstein/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment
Financing
Shift policy to allow for self-administration
(e.g. DMPA-SC)
Authorize or expand task-sharing policies to maximize access to FP methods
Monitor closely, preposition commodities, and identify alternative or interim suppliers throughout coronavirus response and recovery
Work with suppliers to fulfill orders with partial shipments and transfer products between countries
Investing in supply chain management by increasing data visibility and use, accelerating product flow, professionalizing the supply chain workforce, and capitalizing on private sector capacity to support continous availability of contraceptives.
© 2019 Yagazie Emezi/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment
Supply Chain Management
Using digital health technologies to support health systems and FP service delivery to improve data for decision-making, manage logistics, reduce stockouts, and improve provider-client capacity by offering on-demand, contactless FP information and referrals.
© 2015 Paula Bronstein/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment
Digital Health
Serve as a useful enhancement to SBC efforts related to COVID-19 and FP
Monitor disruptions in FP service provision and research, measure, and address coronavirus-related impacts on the health system
Transition provider trainings to virtual platforms
Counsel clients on FP methods, inform clients of service locations, issue prescriptions or refills, screen for medical eligibility, and help clients manage contraceptive-induced side effects
Review a snapshot of these applications in the interactive experience below, organized by HIP category.
The Applications of the High Impact Practices in Family Planning during COVID-19 commentary outlines applications of the HIPs towards COVID-19 response efforts. Drawing upon preliminary COVID-19 data, documented experiences from prior health emergencies, and recommended programme adaptations from a variety of global health partners, it outlines situations where specific HIPs may assist family planning programme managers in developing context-specific and evidence-based responses to COVID-19-related impacts on FP/RH, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the accessibility, availability, and continuity of voluntary family planning services across the world.