The Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus: A Toolkit for Family Planning Service Providers Working in High HIV/STI Prevalence Settings [Second Edition]

From the Population Council, this toolkit is described as an interactive, client-friendly approach for improving counselling on family planning and prevention, detection, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV. The toolkit, developed and tested in Kenya and South Africa, provides the information and materials needed for health care facility directors, supervisors, and service providers to implement the Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus (BCS+) approach in their family planning services. The BCS+ was adapted from the Balanced Counseling Strategy, an evidence-based tool for improving counselling on contraceptive methods.

This second edition toolkit includes the following:

1. BCS+ Trainer’s Guide: Supervisors and others can use this to train health care facility directors and service providers on how to use the BCS+ for counseling family planning clients.
2. BCS+ User’s Guide: This guide focuses on how to implement the Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus. It can be distributed during training or used on its own with the BCS+ job aids.
3. BCS+ job aids comprising:
   • BCS+ algorithm, which summarises the 19 steps needed to implement the BCS+ during a family planning counselling session. These steps are organised into four stages: pre-choice, method choice, post-choice, and STI/HIV counselling.
   • BCS+ counselling cards, which the provider uses during a counselling session. There are 26 counselling cards, the first of which contains six questions that the service provider asks to rule out the possibility a client is pregnant. Each of the next 16 cards contains information about a different family planning method. The next 3 cards provide advice on pregnancy and the postpartum period. The last 6 cards provide information for counselling on preventing, detecting, and treating STIs and HIV.
   • BCS+ method brochures on each of the 16 methods represented by the counselling cards. The brochures provide counselling to clients on the method they have chosen and then are given to clients for later reference.
   • The World Health Organization (WHO) Medical Eligibility Criteria Wheel, which guides providers through medical conditions and medications that may be contraindications to use of particular contraceptive methods.

According to the Population Council, the BCS+ tools are generic and can be revised according to national and/or regional guidelines and different contexts.

All of the toolkit materials, in addition to a video describing use of the BCS+ toolkit in South Africa, are available in downloadable PDF format through the link below. Hard copies of the BCS+ toolkit are available in English upon request from publications@popcouncil.org