PSP Jordan Project's Ongoing Success
Quality Assurance
The Abt Associates-led PSP Jordan program provides an ongoing Quality Assurance Certification program for private physicians. In 2008, PSP in collaboration with the Jordan Medical Council developed the fourth clinical guide for private physicians: "Family Planning for Women with Specific Medical and Personal Conditions," based on the latest WHO Medical Eligibility Criteria. The guidelines will allow physicians to quickly and accurately identify which modern family planning methods are safe and medically acceptable for certain situations, e.g. breast feeding, smoking, diabetes, perimenopause, breast diseases, etc., rather than reading large volumes about the medical criteria for each method.
PSP Jordan worked with the Quality expert of PSP-One to review, finalize these guidelines, and develop an assessment tool. PSP is certifying private physicians in the following 3 additional topics: 1.) Family Planning 2.) Breast Cancer 3.) Reproductive Tract Infections and Sexually Transmitted Infections (RTI/STI).
Behavior Change Communication
In 2008 PSP Jordan utilized the Johns Hopkins Communications Partnership (JHCP) midterm survey of 2,000 households to measure PSP impact on the knowledge, practices, and attitudes of the Jordanian public towards family planning methods and breast cancer through behavior change communication. The survey revealed that 69% of women agree that modern family planning methods are safe to use, and 75% agree that modern family planning methods are effective. As for breast cancer, the survey reported that 48% of the women surveyed (ages 15 – 40) had practiced a self – breast exam in the last 30 days compared to 31% in 2005, and 23% had a clinical breast exam in the last 12 months vs. 20% in 2005. Women over 40 who had heard 2 or more messages about breast cancer were more likely to act: 31% went for a clinical exam vs. only 7% who had not heard any messages. The above results are an example of PSP combined efforts of outreach and mass media encouraging women to use modern family planning methods as well as encouraging women to practice early detection of breast cancer.
