Integration of family planning with a public health department.
- Authors
- Type
- Published Article
- Journal
- The Journal of the Christian Medical Association of India
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1971
- Volume
- 46
- Pages
- 550–551
- Identifiers
- PMID: 12306060
- Source
- Medline
- Keywords
- License
- Unknown
Abstract
A plan for the integration of public health with family planning is described. The plan evolved following a tubectomy camp held in the Salvation Army MacRobert Hospital, Dhariwal, India. If family planning and maternal and child health services are to be integrated, a tubectomy camp is an excellent place to begin. The children accompanying the mothers to the camp can be seen, and on the first postoperative day, a public health member will visit the mother, examine the children, assess nutritional status, and take blood. As an incentive for the mothers to accept the services, charges will be kept at a minimum. To make the program a success certain steps must be taken: 1) the public health staff must stop daily duties during the camp and turn its full attention to the camp; 2) more laboratory staff must be trained; 3) to prevent any friction between ward and public health staff, in-service training will be given to all staff to stress the integration of maternal and child health services with all hospital areas; 4) some follow-up can be maintained with at least the "at risk" patients and those within a 5-mile radius of the hospital; 5) education, particularly in maternal and child health and family planning, is extremely important, and efforts must be made so that people can be reached through the hospital clinics, wards, schools, community groups, and home visits.
