From the Experts

Making the Standard Days Method (SDM) and CycleBeads Part of Your Practice

[ June 11, 2008 ] The Standard Days Method (SDM)® is a new, fertility awareness-based method of family planning developed through scientific analysis of the fertile time in the woman’s menstrual cycle.

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Meeting the Linguistic and Cultural Needs of Clients

[ November 21, 2007 ] Cultural and linguistic barriers can limit your ability to meet the needs of your clients and can lower the chances clients will benefit from the services you provide them. By improving our understanding of cultural and linguistic competency, we can provide high-quality health care that is truly effective, cost-efficient, and most importantly, accessible to the people we serve.

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Making the Birth Control Implant Part of Your Practice

[ August 30, 2007 ] In the clinical trials of Implanon involving 2,300 women, no pregnancies occurred during use in over approximately 73,000 monthly cycles. Since 1998, two and a half million women have successfully used the implant in countries all over the world.

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What Your Clients Need to Know About the Birth Control Implant

[ August 30, 2007 ] Here are some of the basics about this method that your clients will find helpful to know.

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The Hidden Half: Male Involvement in Family Planning

[ June 15, 2007 ] As a health care professional, you know the importance of male involvement in family planning. We all know that women don’t get pregnant by themselves. But we may have trouble bringing men into the family planning equation for a variety of reasons.

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Chronic Illness Management and Low Health Literacy

[ April 11, 2007 ] Chronic disease affects the quality of life of ninety million American adults, and accounts for 7 of 10 deaths in the United States. Self-management of chronic disease is a critical aspect of successful care. However, an inability to understand how to care for oneself or a loved one with a chronic illness can seriously affect even the best intentions and efforts of their physicians.

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Fostering Parent-Child Communication: Your Role as a Healthcare Provider

[ January 24, 2007 ] A large body of evidence is building that identifies parent-child connectedness as a key determinant or "protective factor" that influences adolescent risk-taking behavior. Although at first glance it may not appear to be an obvious fit, but you can play a role in fostering parent-child communication.

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HPV and Cervical Cancer: What Your Clients Need to Know

[ November 6, 2006 ] Mostly likely you’ve heard HPV mentioned in the news recently. But what is HPV? And what should your clients know about it? This article will give you the facts you need.

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Keeping Kids Safe and Healthy:
Closer Parent-Child Communication Reduces Teen Pregnancy and STDs

[ October 6, 2006 ] In a national survey of teens, 80% said their decisions about sex and relationships are influenced by what their parents have told them and what their parents might think. In fact, teens report that their parents influence their decisions about sex more than their friends, the media, or their siblings.

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Supervising and Mentoring Health Educators: Tips for Improving Services

[ August 15, 2006 ] What makes your health education staff so much better than a walking, talking brochure? It’s their education and counseling skills - their ability to go beyond the facts and help clients use health information in a way that makes sense in their own lives.

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Cultural Competency - the need of the hour!

[ July 17, 2006 ] In the last decade, the United States has gone through significant changes in its demographic landscape. Our communities are more diverse now than ever before. Research has shown that while most people have difficulty navigating the US healthcare system, ethnic communities are particularly vulnerable for a variety of reasons.

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The High Cost of Low Health Literacy: What We Can Do

[ May 18, 2006 ] The majority of American adults are either functionally illiterate or substantially limited in their ability to meet the demands of everyday life, according to the National Adult Literacy Survey conducted in 2000. In California, about 1 in 4 adults function at the lowest levels of literacy.

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