Integration of family planning with national health services. Integration de la planification familiale aux services nationaux de sante
Mandara, N.
Africa Link a Publication of the Africa Region 1984: 12-17
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0250-698X PMID: 12266426 Document Number: 204952
After independence in the 1960s, most African government inherited health structures that were curative oriented, costly, and directed toward the urban population. Primary health care, oriented toward prevention, promotion, improvement of the environment, cure, and rehabilitation, has since been adopteed as a better approach to health in Africa. This approach aims to integrate health care with thee activities of other seectors and places relicance on available community resources. An unexpected change has been the transformation of social and political attitudes toward family planning as a basic human right, a concomitant to heealth, and an integral part of socioeconomic development. Family planning is gradually being integrated into the maternal and child health services of all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In some cases, the government has assumed service delivery responsibilities previously carried out by family planning associations, thereby changing the association's role to that of education and motivation. Other countries have faced duplication of services and wastage of resources as a result of integration. There is a need for an overall evaluation of the integrated family planning-maternal and child heath services to determine future priorities and strategies. Problems so far encountered have included coverage, acceptability, accessibility, quality and continuity of care, data collection, and limited resources. However, cost factors, the shortage of trained manpower, the lack of facilities, and prevailing cultural and religious attitudes suggest the advisibility of integrated rather than vertical health programs in Africa. For both planning and administrative purposes, it is necessary to have a central Maternal and Child Health-Family Planning unit within the Ministry of Health as well as regional and district units.