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133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition
December 10-14, 2005
Philadelphia, PA
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133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA |
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Merce M. Gasco, MD, JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., 13 Geoge Calinescu, Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania, +4021 2319687, merce.gasco@jsi.ro, Gabriela Paleru, MD, USAID Romania, 1-5 Costache Negri Street, Opera Center Building, Sector 5, Bucharest, Romania, and Laurentiu Stan, MD, JSI Romania, 13, George Calinescu, Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania.
Romania has historically had a low use of modern contraception and a high rate of abortion. In 1999, Family Planning (FP) services were provided by OB/GYNs and FP clinics located in urban areas. Access to modern contraception was extremely limited in rural areas, where the majority of the population is poor and the number of pharmacies is very low.
A newly created network of Primary Health Care (PHC) Providers under Romanian Health Reform offered MOH the opportunity to pilot FP service provision as an integral component of PHC services. Successes evident from client and provider perspectives led to a national scaling up of the FP program using a multi-faceted approach: policy development, training for health professionals, access to modern contraception and appropriate educational materials and activities.
As a result, Romania has a supportive legislative environment for FP services and 70% of rural communities now have trained PHC professionals offering counseling and subsidized contraceptives. Recent survey data shows a significant increase of the rural contraceptive prevalence rate, from 20.9% (1999) to 33% (2004).
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session participants will be able to: 1. Describe the approach of scaling up FP services to the National level within the context of Health Reform. 2. Understand the importance of integrating FP services within PHC. 3. Justify offering quality FP/RH services centered on client needs, while maximizing available health and social resources.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Family Planning, Health Care Reform
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.
The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA