Correct, consistent use of any family planning method boosts its effectiveness. Yet proper use depends on behavioral changes that many people can find complicated and difficult. Luckily well-established communication tools can inform and inspire these behavior changes, at every level from the individual to the societal. Some of these tools can be combined.
Entertainment-Education
The Info Project describes entertainment-education, or E-E, as the use of "drama, music, or other communication formats that engage the emotions to inform audiences and change attitudes, behavior, and social norms." Hundreds of health projects in the developing and developed worlds have advanced their goals through E-E, including increases in family planning use, HIV/AIDS prevention behaviors and prenatal care. E-E can powerfully communicate family planning messages through to mass media, including TV, radio and the Internet. People without access to mass media can be reached through theater, especially street theater.
Peer Education
Peer educators are nonprofessional but trained instructors who teach members of their own communities about family planning or other health issues. Peer educators work with small groups or one-on-one in widely varied settings, including workplaces, homes, community centers and places of leisure. The AIDS Control and Prevention Project notes the unique ability of peer educators to deliver culturally sensitive and appropriate messages, and win acceptance from their target audiences.
Visual And Textual Aids
Many health care workers and peer educators use visual and textual aids in family planning instruction. The manual used by the World Health Organization in 10 language editions, "Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers," includes such aids in its back pages. For example, an effectiveness chart compares all kinds of contraceptives and invites discussion of the pros and cons of each method. One page shows the correct way to use male condoms. Others depict male and female anatomy, and explain how contraception works in men and women.
Partner Dialogue
According to Family Health International, research backs the belief that more direct, open communication between male and female partners helps them to achieve reproductive goals like pregnancy prevention. FHI cautions that when men have power over women in intimate relationships, "increased partner communication about sexuality may ... lead ... to marital discord, suspicions of infidelity and even intimate partner violence. "However, health providers and educators can anticipate, alleviate and even prevent these problems by first raising sensitive issues in public forums and "enlisting the cooperation of men" by including them in family planning-related services.
Behavior Change Communication
According to the Info Project, Behavior Change Communication, or BCC, is "a process that motivates people to adopt and sustain healthy behaviors and lifestyles," including those related to family planning, reproductive health and maternal child health. To motivate and sustain desired behaviors, a health care program must integrate BCC into all its work. The program precisely identifies family planning needs and messages through the target community's participation and shares them through the most effective communications channels.
References
- AIDS Control and Prevention Project: How to Create an Effective Peer Education Program
- Family Health International: When Partners Talk, Behavior May Change
- Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers
- Info Reports: Entertainment-Education for Better Health
- Info Reports: Tools for Behavior Change Communication
