The Balanced Counseling Strategy: A Toolkit for Family Planning Service Providers

The Balanced Counseling Strategy (BCS) is an interactive, client-oriented counseling strategy. It uses three key job aids (visual memory aids) for counseling clients about family planning. The guides for users and trainers, as well as the job aids, are published by the Population Council with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The process, tested and refined in Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico, involves a set of steps to determine the method that best suits the client according to her preferences and reproductive health intentions.

The BCS toolkit includes:

• User’s Guide
  
• Trainer's Guide
• Three job aids or memory tools for use by the provider and client:
1. An algorithm that summarises the 11 steps needed to implement the strategy
   
2. Counseling cards with basic information about 15 family planning methods, plus a card with the checklist to be reasonably sure a woman is not pregnant
   
3. Brochures on each of the methods for the client to take once a method is chosen
   

The BCS toolkit incorporates the most recent international family planning norms and guidance as recommended by the World Health Organization, including the 2004 Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use and the 2007 Family Planning Global Handbook. The BCS approach is adapts to local contexts; and the toolkit includes instructions for adaptation, as well as a CD-Rom with electronic copies of the materials.