• Flip chart paper • Overhead projector
s
Time Required: 1 hour 5 minutes"
Work for Trainers to Do in Advance: • Prepare Participant Handout 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 • Prepare Transparency 7.1• Review the dialogues
• Prepare role play of counseling session with another trainer or Participants Specific Objective #7 CONTENT Knowledge/Attitudes/Skills TRAINING/LEARNING METHODS (Time Required)
Effective counseling, which results in a well- informed decision and a contented client, can be achieved by following some basic steps in the counseling process. The steps can provide structure to a complex process yet should be adapted to meet each individual client’s needs. The following are elements of a successful counseling session:
1. Introductions
2. Finding out more/Getting information 3. Providing family planning information 4. Helping in the decision-making process 5. Providing details on a selected method 6. Follow-up
Examples of Tasks Conducted Under Each Step
GROUP EXERCISE (20 MIN.): The trainer should:
►Hand out a copy of Dialogue
Exercise from Participants Handout #7.1 and ask each
participant to answer, "Is this dialogue good or bad, and why?"
7.1 • Discuss briefly.
ROLE PLAY/GROUP DISCUSSION (45 MIN):
Specific Objective #7
CONTENT
Knowledge/Attitudes/Skills
TRAINING/LEARNING METHODS (Time Required)
care for his/her well-being.
• Assure the client that all information discussed will be confidential.
• Talk in a private place if possible.
Finding out more/Getting information
• Ask the client about her/his wishes.
• Write down the client's: age, marital status, number of previous pregnancies and births, number of living children, basic medical history, previous use of family planning methods, history and risk for STDs.
• Assess the possible profile of the woman who is a candidate for birth spacing. Not all women who come into the service are the same or have the same situation. An adolescent girl who has been raped is not in the same situation as a woman who has two small children, is married or lives with a partner and does or does not want to have another child within the next two years. Therefore, it is important to find out her present state to determine how best to present optimal birth spacing.
• Assess what the client knows about optimal birth spacing and family planning methods. • Provide encouragement to the client by
praising her for the information she already knows and for coming to the center to seek out more information.
• Ask the client if there is a particular method s/he is interested in.
• Discuss any client concerns about risks vs. benefits of modern methods (dispel rumors and misconceptions).
Providing FP information
• Tell the client about optimal birth spacing and the available methods.
• Focus on methods that most interest the client, but briefly mention other available methods.
• Show/describe how each method works, the advantages and benefits and possible side effects and disadvantages.
• Answer client concerns and questions.
counselor and should ask another trainer or participant to volunteer as the client.
(Examples of possible scenarios include:
- an unmarried, sexually active adolescent who has never used contraceptives but does not want to get pregnant
- a married mother of 4 children, all spaced less than 2 years apart who is considering family planning
- a married mother of one child seeking to delay her next pregnancy
►Tell the Participants they are going to observe a role play of the counseling process. Ask them to identify the major steps of the counseling process as they observe.
►After the role play, ask Participants for general reactions.
►Ask Participants what major steps of the counseling process they identified, writing each one on flip chart paper.
►After the steps are listed, ask participants to help put them in chronological order, grouping similar responses.
►Give participants Handout #7.2 and show Transparency #7.1, the diagram of the elements of a successful counseling session.
7.2
7.1
►Write each major step on a separate flip chart paper. ►Step by step, ask Participants to
quickly identify specific tasks within each step and write them on the appropriate flip chart
Specific Objective #7
CONTENT
Knowledge/Attitudes/Skills
TRAINING/LEARNING METHODS (Time Required)
Helping in the decision-making process
• Help the client to choose a method. • Repeat information if necessary.
• Explain any procedures or lab tests to be performed.
• Examine client.
• If there is any reason found on examination or while taking a more detailed history that there are precautions for the method, help the client choose another method.
Providing details on a selected method
• Demonstrate/explain how to use the method (how, when, where).
• Explain to the client how and when s/he can/should get re-supplies of the method, if necessary.
• Provide confidence and encouragement again by complimenting the client on her decision and ability to practice a family planning method.
Follow-up
• At the follow-up or return visit ask the client if s/he is still using the method.
• If the answer is yes, ask her/him if s/he is experiencing any problems or side effects and answer her/his questions, solve any problems, if possible.
• If the answer is no, ask why s/he stopped using the method and counsel her/him to see if s/he would like to try another method or re- try the same method again.
• Make sure s/he is using the method correctly (ask her/him how s/he is using it).
on the appropriate flip chart. ►Give participants Handout #7.3
and complete the exercise by explaining that all of the elements discussed are necessary for "successful” counseling.
Successful counseling results in a well-informed decision and a contented client. Effective counseling requires knowledge, skill, sensitivity, and tolerance toward the wishes and
differences of all clients.