Counseling and Testing

This study was undertaken primarily to understand what effect the efforts to integrate family planning and VCT services in health facilities had on health care providers’ work and service delivery practices in two regions of Ethiopia. [from summary]

This document discusses the outcomes of a qualitative study to describe the knowledge and practices of private clinic and laboratory service providers regarding HIV and HIV counseling and testing.

The study also identifies the characteristics of the stigma that private service providers place on female sex workers, men who have sex with men, people living with HIV/AIDS and describes the experiences of these groups regarding private counseling and testing services. [adapted from executive summary]

The Zambia Prevention, Care and Treatment Partnership began training and placing community volunteers as lay counsellors in order to complement the efforts of the health care workers in providing HIV counselling and testing services. These volunteers are trained using the standard national counselling and testing curriculum. This study was conducted to review the effectiveness of lay counsellors in addressing staff shortages and the provision of HIV counselling and testing services. [from abstract]

This toolkit is an interactive, client-friendly approach for improving counseling on family planning and prevention, detection, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV. It includes a training of trainers guide that supervisors and others can use to train health care facility directors and service providers on how to use the BCS+ for counseling family planning clients. [from publisher]

Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) is a cornerstone for successful implementation of prevention, care and support services among HIV negative and positive individuals. VCT is also perceived to be an effective strategy in risk reduction among sexually active young people. This study aimed to assess the acceptability of VCT and its actual uptake among young health care professional students. [adapted from abstract]

This study evaluates the effectiveness and sustainability of a voluntary counseling and testing training program based on a training-of-trainers model. [adapted from abstract]

This document summarizes a project to design, implement and compare two models of integrating CT for HIV within FP services in 23 health facilities in Kenya in terms of their feasibility, acceptability, cost and effect on the voluntary use of CT, as well as the quality of FP services. [adapted from summary]

Leaders of the University of Belize’s Faculty of Nursing and Allied Health had a vision. Their country has the third highest HIV prevalence in the region, after Haiti and Guyana, yet it lacked an effective system for training providers in counseling and testing. As faculty members, they dreamed of establishing a national training center that would provide the latest resources and trainings for both students and providers. [from author]

This survey is the first attempt to examine the preparedness of the health
system to implement guidelines for HIV testing in clinical settings, and to provide comprehensive AIDS management. This includes availing HIV testing in clinical settings to both adult and pediatric patients, and providing treatment for HIV disease. The survey also examines the working environment in health care facilities, with an emphasis on HIV infection control and access to post-exposure prophylaxis for health workers themselves. [from foreword]

Providing contraceptive services at VCT centers is an opportunity to prevent unintended pregnancies among clients whose needs may not be met through traditional family planning services. Operations research in Kenya suggests that integrating family planning into VCT services is feasible and acceptable. An integration intervention improved providers’ discussions about fertility desires and contraceptive methods with clients, without compromising the length of client-provider interaction or client waiting time.

In response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, Namibia’s public health sector is carrying out a comprehensive strategy to rapidly hire and deploy professional and non-professional health workers with the aim of providing comprehensive care, counseling and testing, as well as antiretroviral therapy (ART) and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). [from executive summary]

To maximize program impact with current resources, integration of Family Planning into existing HIV/AIDS programs is a very cost effective and an excellent point of entry. This is a study of an intervention program focused on initiating and also strengthening existing integration of FP into functional VCT, ART and PMTCT sites. The intervention encompassed an orientation on integration benefits to heads of health facilities; identification of challenges of integration and drawing of plan of action on how to overcome the challenges and improve integration.

This report presents estimates of the total cost of providing comprehensive antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in the public sector in Nigeria, using the AIDSTREATCOST model to estimate the cost of providing Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART), Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VDT), and Opportunistic Infection (OI) treatment, and other resource requirements for implementing the national antiretroviral (ARV) treatment program

HIV counselling and testing is a key component of both HIV care and HIV prevention, but uptake is currently low. We investigated the impact of rapid HIV testing at the workplace on uptake of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT). [author’s description]

In Mozambique, [Health Alliance International] HAI has been working closely with the MOH for more than fifteen years to support the development and implementation of MOH programs in reproductive health, the response to HIV/AIDS, and malaria control… HAI works with the MOH to implement the nationally designed model of HIV care, and has supported the implementation of voluntary counseling and testing centers, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) PROGRAMS, and HIV treatment centers integrated into this public sector model of care. [publisher’s description]

This report presents the findings of a study conducted at 16 healthcare sites in Zambia offering voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (P-MTCT), and antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. The study period, including design, implementation, and data analysis, was April to June 2003. The purpose of the study was to assist the Government of Zambia in determining whether it will have sufficient staff to be able to scale up VCT, P-MTCT, and ARV treatment to reach its targeted numbers of clients.