Press Release
For Immediate Release Febuary 8, 1999
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New Research Documents Success of Johns Hopkins
GATHER Counseling for Family Planning
New research finds that the 6-step GATHER approach to counseling leads to more satisfied family planning clients, more clients choosing family planning, and clients using family planning longer. The findings coincide with publication of a new Johns Hopkins Population Information Program (JHU/PIP) GATHER Guide to Counseling—an updated and expanded version of the widely used Population Reports counseling guide.
The acronym GATHER stands for Greet, Ask, Tell, Help, Explain, and Return. Family planning providers throughout the developing world have used GATHER to remind themselves of these six steps in counseling. GATHER was introduced in the quarterly journal Population Reports in 1988. Since then JHU/PIP has distributed over a quarter million copies of the counseling guide in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Other countries have adapted and translated GATHER. In Nepal, for example, GATHER was translated into Abhibadan, which means "gracious welcome." The syllables in Abhibadan stand for the same good counseling elements as in GATHER.
"Everyone acknowledges the importance of counseling," says Douglas Storey, Ph.D., a Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) researcher who evaluated the use of GATHER counseling in Nepal. "But we now have evidence that the more GATHER elements are used, the more likely that clients will adopt or continue using a family planning method."
JHU/CCP researchers interviewed over 1,000 family planning clients in Nepal who had visited a clinic within the past six months. "Unsatisfied" or "non-committed" clients reported only experiencing an average of 3 or 4 elements of the 6-part GATHER process. By comparison, "satisfied" or "completely satisfied" clients reported that the health care worker used an average of 5 or 6 GATHER elements during their counseling sessions.
"We also found that certain GATHER elements were more likely to result in satisfied clients," says Storey. "For example, satisfied clients were more likely to report that the provider had Greeted them and made them feel at ease, Asked them about their opinions and concerns, and Helped them to make a decision or reassured them about their concerns."
Use of GATHER also encouraged both adoption and continued use of family planning. Storey's team found that clients were more likely to adopt a method if the provider had helped the client to make a decision, explained how to use the method, and asked the client to return for another visit—the H, E, and R steps in GATHER. Women were more likely to be continuing users of family planning if, during their most recent visit to a provider, they were greeted and made to feel at ease, they were asked about their opinions, and concerns, and they received explanation of their questions about family planning. For them, the most important GATHER elements were Greet, Ask, and Explain.
The new 32-page, color-coded guide includes the latest medical eligibility criteria for each contraceptive method developed by the World Health Organization and other international experts. Each GATHER element has its own 2-page pull-out chart for display or quick reference. The guide also includes suggested training exercises and discussions, examples of dialogue that counselors can adopt, and a checklist for providers to rate themselves on each GATHER element.
The GATHER Guide to Counseling was prepared by Ward Rinehart, MA, Sharon Rudy, Ph.D., and Megan Drennan, MPH. Population Reports is an international review journal of important issues in population, family planning, and related health matters. It is published four times a year in four languages by the Population Information Program at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs for more than 170,000 family planning and other health professionals worldwide, with support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID administers the US foreign assistance program, providing economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 80 countries worldwide.
