Contraception Navigator Program

Description

Our study has 3 Aims and uses human centered design to develop the following:

1. A Contraception Navigator Program to assist adolescents (ages 16-19yrs) seeking hormonal contraception (Aim 1). This program will build upon the existing Patient Navigator Model to address self-efficacy/perceived behavioral control through personal interactions with navigator staff and use of targeted services. Importantly, the Contraception Navigator Program will assist adolescents in overcoming barriers to access before, during and after their clinical encounter. Previous research that demonstrates decreasing barriers to access leads to improved contraception use and lower rates of unplanned pregnancy.
2. Craft an outreach strategy (Aim 2) that effectively activates adolescents to seek help in obtaining hormonal contraception through the navigator program. We will elicit the salient beliefs of adolescents regarding accessing and using hormonal contraception, identifying salient consequences, referents, and circumstances that form the belief structure of their health seeking behavior. Understanding adolescent's beliefs pertaining to contraception barriers will be critical in informing the activation of adolescents to utilize the contraception navigator program.

Once we have developed the contraceptive program and outreach strategy, we will conduct a pilot test (Aim 3) in one racially and socioeconomically diverse county within Indiana to demonstrate the feasibility of the program model. The contraception navigator program must be piloted prior to larger scale implementation within the state of Indiana. We hypothesize that facilitating access to hormonal contraception through the contraception navigator program will ultimately result in increased use of hormonal contraception.

Details