May 31, 2011
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is conducting a thorough revamp of Title X - the federal program that provides comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. This is the first comprehensive review of the program in 20 years, and ACA has been asked to provide an evidence based approach for integrating counseling into the program.
On May 10th, David Kaplan, ACA Chief Professional Officer, presented a social learning theory based counseling model that could be utilized by Title X counselors at the Contraceptive Counseling and Education Technical Panel meeting in Atlanta. The model was well received and HHS officials indicated that they see using the model (and ACA's continued assistance) in the new iteration of Title X. HHS also indicated that they hope to come up with funding for ACA to provide training to Title X counselors after the program is revised.