Family Planning Telephone Services in Two Asian Cities

Abstract

In 1972 family planning telephone counseling services were begun in Taipei Taiwan and in Seoul Korea. A comparison of results from the first 10 months of the Seoul program and the first 6 months of the Taipei program is presented. The telephone counseling services in both countries grew out of an attempt to meet the needs for family planning services of a broader spectrum of the population. The telephone service in Taipei is open continuously from noon to 9 PM daily 6 days a week and is run by 2 senior public health nurses on separate shifts supervised by the chief nurse of the Taipei Family Planning Promotion Center. In Seoul the telephone counseling service is open from 9 AM to 5:30 PM on weekdays and 9 AM to noon Saturdays and closed for an hour at lunch. For the first 5 months a trained health educator took the calls at the Planned Parenthood Federation of Koreas (PPFK) headquarters. Later it was moved to the PPFK family planning clinic in Seoul where a public health nurse answers the phone as part of her regular clinic duties. During the first 5 months Taipei averaged 610 calls a month and Seoul 264 calls per month. In both cities the number of calls seems to be closely related to the intensity of publicity. In Taipei about 2/3 of the callers requested information on either contraceptive methods or side effects. At the Seoul service the largest proportion of callers wanted information on vasectomy which is made available by the government in Seoul but not in Taipei. The second largest group of callers asked about spacing and termination of childbearing. There are 7 phones per 100 population in Taipei and in Seoul the ratio is 6 per 100. In Taipei 20% of calls came during lunchtime and 35% during the evening periods when the Seoul service was not operating. During the first 6 months the cost per call in the Taipei service was US$ .50 and in the first 12 months the cost per call in Seoul was US$ .59. It is estimated that in the future the Taipei call would be about US$ .25 and the Seoul call would be about US$ .20 if not 0 since existing facilities and personnel are used. More than 1/2 the callers in each city used a public or office phone. A large proportion of the callers are young unmarried and male. These are segments of the population not adequately served by either family planning program at present.