Family planning training and community needs.

Training programs in family planning should be reoriented to reflect educational objectives and training methods that are of relevance for the future activities and tasks of workers and to include greater attention to psychosocial aspects and the identification of community needs and resources. This article reviews the overall methodological principles involved in teaching or leaning family planning reviews and analyzes the functions and tasks of different categories of family planning workers and outlines the methodology of community diagnosis. Teaching of family planning is based on the same prinicples as teaching any other aspect of health: defining tasks and educational activities planning an evaluation system preparing and implementing an educational program and implementing evaluation. Educational objectives are directly derived from tasks which workers will be called upon to accomplish. The application of the methodology can lead to improved training of health workers only if the training system is closely related to the health problems of the community. Different categories of family planning workers include physicians nurses and midwives auxiliary workers community development agents and others and the main activities involved concern administration; getting to know the community; recruiting clients; clinical educational management and supervisory evaluation and research activities; and the psychosocial dimension of family planning activities. A possible methodology for the distribution of activities and tasks among the different categories of workers involves constructing a table which lists activities corresponding tasks and categories of workers taking into account legal restrictions manpower constraints local community custom and similar factors. A community diagnosis of family planning needs involves identifying problems needs and resources; establishing priorities; defining objectives for action; establishing the plan of action; and evaluation. Direct links should be maintained between the community diagnosis and training.