Beyond the Pill expands its reach in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by supporting the development of a local cadre of IUD and implant specialists.
The UCSF Bixby Center’s Beyond the Pill program is working with the Take Control Initiative (TCI) to improve access to highly effective contraceptives, IUDs and implants, in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area.
In an effort to strengthen local capacity, our training team traveled to Tulsa to train 10 IUD and implant specialists to serve as regional trainers and resource point persons in their communities. Physicians and certified health education specialists participated in our first ever “train-the-trainers” held in February 2015. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions on complex issues related to IUDs and implants and practiced implementing our evidenced-based training modules.
TCI has already scheduled workshops for local family planning providers and partner clinics. They will be using Beyond the Pill’s materials to teach clinicians and allied medical staff about these methods, the research to support their safety and efficacy, as well as insertion skills and counseling methods and approaches.
The regional IUD and implant specialists not only received extensive training in the Beyond the Pill curriculum modules but also had the opportunity to explore various barriers in their community to the provision of IUDs and the implant, as well as to discuss solutions and relevant research in-depth. We are thrilled to have forged this relationship to be able to develop the capacity of local advocates and providers and look forward to replicating this model in other regions to expand the reach of the Beyond the Pill team.