Title: Family planning and the health extension service
Course: Level 3 - Family Planning > Section: Family planning service delivery and programme management

The Roles of Health Extension Workers in Provision of Family Planning Services

As part of your role as health extension worker, you have several important roles to play in the delivery of family planning services.

Using document reviews (sources: kebele council, and other organisations), group discussions, interview with individuals and residents and home visit to discuss with household members by using health development army collect baseline data on the following areas:

Information to Be Collected on Family Planning

- Number of households by age, sex, religion, occupation, source of income, average monthly income, and annual birth and death rates.
- Knowledge, attitude and practice of family planning.
- Number of contraceptive users and type of contraceptives they are using.
- Number of contraceptive nonusers and why they don't use.
- Number of contraceptive non-users, but who want to use.
- Information on when the contraceptive users started using the services.
- Information on taboos.
- Number of mothers that breastfeed.
- Number of mothers who got pregnant according to their plans.
- Number of mothers who got pregnant outside their plans.
- Useful and harmful traditional practices.

After collecting the above survey, your activities could be the following:

- Provision of education on family planning by using interpersonal communication.
- Educating and mobilising communities for family planning services.
- Providing continuing family planning counselling.
- Mobilising communities for active participation in family planning.
- Strengthening and implementing coordinated family planning.
- Showing users as examples of family planning to promote the services.

Summary of Family Planning Services That Health Extension Workers Can Give at Their Health Posts

Facility | Health professional available | Family planning service
Health Post
Health extension workers
- The above activity mentioned in box one plus.
- Counselling on family planning and other SRH issues.
- Counsel natural family planning method.
- Provide injectable.
- Implanon insertion.
- Refer to the health centre for long-acting and permanent methods.
- Planning based on local data.