INFO Launches Interactive Products About Injectable Contraceptives  

The INFO Project at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs unveiled a bundle of interlinked products Monday aimed at helping program managers and health-care providers meet the rising demand for injectable contraceptives. The products include an interactive on-line toolkit, a blog, a PowerPoint Presentation, and three reports.

"More than twice as many women are using injectable contraceptives today as a decade ago and the numbers keep growing,” according to the latest issue of Population Reports, “Expanding Services for Injectables: - http://www.infoforhealth.org/pr/k6/index.shtml  

“Injectables appeal to the many women who seek a family planning method that is effective and long–acting and can be used privately,” write Robert Lande and Catherine Richey who prepared the 24-page Population Reports issue and its companion eight-page INFO Reports issue, “Injectable Contraceptives: Tools for  Providers” http://www.infoforhealth.org/inforeports/injectable/index.shtml

The reports are designed to help programs provide good-quality services. They include checklists for increasing access to injectables and giving safe injections, and tables with counseling information to help women choose injectables and be satisfied users. The third report, a two-page Global Health Technical Brief, "How Family Planning Programs Can Meet Rising Demand for Injectable Contraceptives" http://www.maqweb.org/techbriefs/tb36injectables.shtml summarizes a program strategy that addresses keeping injectables in stock, increasing efficiency, ensuring safe injections, and using the mass media to provide information about injectables.

The on-line Injectables Toolkit http://www.infoforhealth.org/injectables/  provides up-to-date and accurate information, guidance on best practices, and resources and tools to help improve access to and quality of services. It is designed for program managers, providers, policymakers, logistics managers, communication professionals, trainers, and researchers and will be regularly updated with new information. The Injectables Toolkit Blog  http://www.infoforhealth.org/injectables/blog/ invites readers to interact with the authors of Population Reports and others in the field by posting questions, comments, and program experiences related to injectable contraceptives.

The PowerPoint Presentation based on the Population Reports issue can be downloaded and used for teaching and training http://www.infoforhealth.org/pr/k6/published/k6presentation.ppt

To order the Population Reports and INFO Reports issues in print, go to http://www.jhuccp.org/orders/orderform.php   

Also, be sure to visit this week's issue of PopReporter which features a guest editorial about injectables from the authors http://www.infoforhealth.org/popreporter/current.shtml