
East Africa Toolkit: Services & Supply
- Home
- Help and Support
- Close
- Toolkits
- Global Toolkit
- AYSRH Toolkit
- Hub Toolkits
- Close
- Resource Collection
- Community of Practice
- Coaching
- Log In
- Register
- My Profile
- English
Integrated Family Planning Outreach
An integrated family planning outreach is a health service delivery activity done outside the facility with the aim of bringing health services closer to the community. The health services are provided at the community level within locally available venues, such as schools, social halls, community grounds, markets and religious facilities, etc.
This animated video describes the steps for conducting an integrated outreach.
The TCI Tutorial below features a webinar held in October 2019 to explain what an integrated outreach is, as well as considerations for holding a successful one.
Why Is Integrated Family Planning Outreach Important?
- Increase access to services among the under-served urban poor
- Eliminate barriers and associated indirect costs of accessing health facilities by bringing services closer to the community, in areas where facilities are far away or where there are negative attitudes towards the health facilities
- Serve as opportunities for closer interaction between heath facility staff and the community. Such interactions foster community dialogue and assist to initiate community action
- Provide an avenue for improving health facility competency through coaching and mentorship
Evidence
According to Tupange Pamoja program data:
- There was an increased uptake of long-acting and reversible contraceptives (LARCs), attributable to integrated family planning outreaches in program areas. Outreach services contributed about 30% of LARCs services provided within supported sites in 2018/9.
Guidance: How to Conduct Integrated Family Planning Outreach
- Review the data to identify gaps in the catchment area to determine:
-
- Need for family planning services
- Areas with low access to services
- Types of services to be offered during the outreaches
- Involve the local city health managers and teams involved in mobilization activities while scheduling dates for the outreach.
- Seek all necessary statutory approvals and permits that are required from relevant government agencies before conducting mobilization activities.
- Conduct pre- and post-outreach meetings to plan and evaluate each outreach activity.
- Prepare and avail adequate supplies, commodities and equipment for the outreach based on services to be provided.
- Mobilize communities to be ready for outreach services through use of community health workers, the door-to-door approach, posters and flyers and announcements during community gatherings. Where budgets allow, announce on radio or TV to expand reach. This will ensure that the targeted communities are aware of the services to be offered.
- Identify and prepare the community venue that will host the outreach in collaboration with all stakeholders, ensuring cleanliness and safety. The venue should ideally be centrally located and easily accessible to community members. Use health wagons, where available, to enhance privacy and enable provision of services that require a high degree of infection prevention.
- Recruit and train competent staff to conduct integrated family planning outreach services.
- Ensure quality service provision during the integrated family planning outreaches. On the day of the integrated outreach, ensure easy registration and retrieval of records and short waits (and swift referral when necessary).
- Where several stakeholders are involved, it is advisable that county health staff carry out the actual implementation and service delivery while stakeholders provide technical assistance and resources.
- Ensure emergency preparedness. Outreaches offer multiple health services and as such outreach teams need to be prepared to manage basic medical emergencies.
Helpful Tips:
- FP commodities and expendable supplies for outreach services need to be projected, quantified and procured in advance and should be part of the routine supplies for health facilities. Resource planning for outreaches need to be done at least three months prior to the activity.
- Maximize outreaches by integrating other related health services, such as child health, cervical cancer screening, prostate cancer screening, HIV testing and counseling, immunization and de-worming, without losing focus on family planning. The extent of integration is dependent on available resources (staff, supplies and commodities). Avoid including more than 3-4 integrated services in one outreach.
- Use of the Provider Initiated Family Planning (PIFP) job aid to ensure that clients coming for integrated services do not miss an opportunity for family planning. The number of clinical and community staff participating in integrated outreaches needs to be rationalized based on the scale of the integrated outreach.
- All integrated outreaches should be planned and managed strategically to avoid interfering with facility and other routine operations.
- Mobilize youth to be ready for services through the use of established youth groups and youth community health assistants.
Key Outcomes
- Increased uptake of FP/contraceptive services
- Reduced number of myths and misconception around FP services at community level
- Better client engagement
- Enhanced provider initiated family planning
Monitoring Processes
- Monitor the level of integration to assess the extent of integration of services during outreaches
- Monitor the quality of integrated services through laid-down structures (ensure privacy, confidentiality and infection procedures are followed)
- Conduct post-outreach meetings to review quality and operational issues that may have arisen
- Monitor the level of family planning commodities and expendable supplies expended and remaining from the integrated outreach
- Ensure data from the outreach has been captured in the in the right tool and also entered into the Open Data Kit (ODK) online system before leaving the outreach site
Success Indicators
- Number of integrated outreaches conducted within the catchment area
- Number of new family planning acceptors from integrated outreaches
- Proportion of clients reached through outreaches
Cost
- Resources needed to conduct an integrated outreach are listed in the outreach guidelines
Sustainability
- Consistent advocacy with city stakeholders to provide resources for outreach services
- Inclusion of integrated outreach activities in geography health plans by allocating budget for these activities
- Ensure planning, management, coordination and implementation of outreach activities are led by the geography health staff
- Cost reduction can be achieved through cost-sharing among stakeholders and leveraging of community resources such as venues, community staff and local leaders and structures for mobilization assists to minimize costs
Take An Assessment and Get a Certificate
Assessment Summary
0 of 6 Questions completed
Questions:
Information
You have already completed the assessment before. Hence you can not start it again.
Assessment is loading…
You must sign in or sign up to start the assessment.
You must first complete the following:
Results
Results
0 of 6 Questions answered correctly
Your time:
Time has elapsed
You have reached 0 of 0 point(s), (0)
Earned Point(s): 0 of 0, (0)
0 Essay(s) Pending (Possible Point(s): 0)
Categories
- Not categorized 0%
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- Current
- Review
- Answered
- Correct
- Incorrect
-
Question 1 of 6
1. Question
Integrated family planning outreach is a health service delivery activity done outside of the health facility to bring services closer to the community.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 2 of 6
2. Question
Key outcomes of integrated family planning outreach include:
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 3 of 6
3. Question
Integrated outreach services can be provided in venues such as:
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 4 of 6
4. Question
Resource planning, including family planning commodities and routine supplies, should be done months in advance of an outreach activity.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 5 of 6
5. Question
How useful did you find the information and/or tools presented on this page? Please write your response in the box below using one of the following phrases: Very useful, Useful, Somewhat useful, Not useful.
Feel free to comment on why you made that choice.
-
This response will be awarded full points automatically, but it can be reviewed and adjusted after submission.
Grading can be reviewed and adjusted.Grading can be reviewed and adjusted. -
-
Question 6 of 6
6. Question
How do you intend to use the information reviewed and/or tools that you accessed?
-
This response will be awarded full points automatically, but it can be reviewed and adjusted after submission.
Grading can be reviewed and adjusted.Grading can be reviewed and adjusted. -