By Dr. Milly Kaggwa, Head of Quality of Care, PSI
For many people, especially women and girls, accessing the information and services necessary to make an informed choice about contraception can be a difficult and overwhelming journey. In my work to improve people’s healthcare experiences and health outcomes, quality, accessible contraceptive care is essential.
Person-centered contraceptive care – an approach that prioritizes understanding and responding to individual’s experiences and preferences – is a proven method of helping people make contraceptive choices that support their needs, lives, and futures.
That is why leading up to World Contraception Day, we are highlighting the incredible providers driving person-centered care in their communities. After many years practicing medicine in Uganda in both the private and public sectors, I understand the challenges providers face, with heavy workloads in resource constrained environments, to meet the needs of clients and contribute to improving health outcomes.
By 2030, PSI has committed to innovate and scale person-centered solutions that enable 100 million people to make full, free, and informed sexual and reproductive health choices throughout their life course. To get there, we partner with public and private sector health facilities, professional associations and national governments to strengthen provider capacity for person-centered contraceptive care. By centering empathy as a key tool for providers, we are helping providers support individuals to make informed contraceptive choices.
Below, we hear from three providers on the frontlines of person-centered contraceptive care.
Atim Faith Mercy, Registered Midwife, Uganda
Atim Faith Mercy is a registered midwife working at the Kiswa Health Centre in Kampala, Uganda. In 2021, she attended a PSI-facilitated training on DMPA-SC self-injection (SI), a self-care contraceptive method that individuals can administer every three months at home.
“As a healthcare provider, I have to build trust with clients by listening actively and giving unbiased information,” says Faith. “Person-centered contraceptive care is about respecting and responding to the individual needs, preferences, and values of each client seeking contraceptive services. It helps provide open dialogue between the clients and the healthcare provider, focuses counseling on client preferences, improves the client’s confidence in contraceptive use, and improves health systems by building trust between providers and their communities.”
The SI provider training is a part of Delivering Innovation in Self-Care (DISC) – a project funded by Children’s Investment Fund Foundation to support women to assume greater power and control over their sexual and reproductive health by using contraceptive self-care methods like self-injection. DISC implements person-centered, empathy-based contraceptive care training for providers throughout Uganda, Nigeria, Malawi, and Zambia.
Dr. Towanou Yves Gbohoui, Medical Doctor, Benin
Dr. Towanou Yves Gbohoui provides family planning and reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health (FP and RMNCH) services at the Abba Clinic in Za-kpota, Benin. He is among 170 providers, facility owners, and staff across 40 health facilities in Benin that have been trained in person-centered care in 2024 through the MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery (MPHD) program.
“Before the training, we gave treatment, but we weren’t always considering the preferences of the client,” says Dr. Gbohoui. “Person-centered care is respectful, it responds to the preferences of individuals, and it puts the client at ease. After the training, we have made every effort to always have all the contraceptive methods available, which permits us to help the client make an informed choice.”
MPHD harnesses the potential of the private sector to expand access to and use of high-quality, evidence-based FPRMNCH care. To address the lack of guidance and training opportunities in empathy-based care, MPHD developed a toolkit tailored to private providers in low-and middle-income countries. The toolkit provides guidance on the broad concepts of person-centered care for FP and RMNCH to support private health providers to understand and meet the needs of their clients.
Aruk Theresa Akudpoaka, Registered Midwife, Ghana
Aruk Theresa Akudpoaka is a registered midwife at Ghana’s Garu Presbyterian Health Center. She was among 157 private health providers across Ghana trained in Counseling for Choice (C4C), an evidence-based approach to contraceptive counseling that supports clients to decide which method is right for them. Supported by the MOMENTUM Private Health Delivery program, the training was led by Total Family Health Organization in collaboration with Jhpiego Ghana.
“Prior to C4C, I really did not know I was overloading clients with information,” says Theresa. “This time […] when clients come, we give them the exact information they need, then we render the services, and they leave here satisfied.”
Clients are the experts on their own lives, and their needs and preferences should be the foundation of their healthcare decisions. C4C training, with its suite of resources on person-centered contraceptive care, supports providers to actively listen to clients, facilitate collaborative dialogue, and help them make an informed choice about contraception.
To learn more about person-centered contraceptive care, contact Dr. Milly Kaggwa (mkaggwa@psi.org).
This blog is part of a series in partnership with Population Council, Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC), and Population Services International (PSI) to recognize World Contraception Day. From product development to utilization and beyond, we power contraceptive choices that meet the needs of women and girls worldwide.
