Integrated services
Introducing client-centered reproductive health services in a Pakistani setting
Addressing women’s barriers to accessing and using services through a client-centered approach.
Authors:
Z. Sathar; A. Jain; S.| RamaRao
Publisher:
Studies in Family Planning, 2005
Poor quality of existing public reproductive health services in Pakistan deters many women from using services and contributes to poor reproductive health outcomes. This paper reviews an intervention designed to improve the quality of services by training health care providers to help clients meet their needs and eliminate barriers to service access and use. The training encouraged clinic staff and community workers to become aware of clients’ circumstances and to respond accordingly; to expand discussion beyond clients’ immediate needs to a wider array of their reproductive health concerns; and to engage clients in discussion and negotiation regarding reproductive health-care solutions.
The paper finds that the providers who had participated in the training had significantly better interactions with clients compared with providers in the control group. However, deficiencies remain in provider’s assessment of clients’ needs and in helping clients to find appropriate solutions. For instance, providers do not seem to pay adequate attention to assessing a client’s reproductive health needs or to providing her with enough information to encourage her to choose a solution or option on her own. The authors conclude that scaling-up the intervention can have a potentially major impact on the quality and use of reproductive health services and that the training is not prohibitively expensive.
