title: 'Country women are resilient but. …': Family planning access in rural Victoria.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined barriers to accessing three types of family planning service (emergency contraception, termination of pregnancy and options counselling) within the Grampians region of Victoria. In addressing the challenges faced by geographically marginalised women, the intention was to contribute to feminist psychological research in the field of women's health.
  
  
  METHODS
  The qualitative study drew on community and health psychology frameworks. Community psychology's ecological perspective takes into account the different contexts of people's lives, while the focus on psychosocial aspects of women's reproductive health behaviour places the study in a health psychology domain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Grampians region of Victoria, Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven professionals whose employment was connected to family planning services in Victoria.
  
  
  METHODS
  Semi-structured interviews.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study documented professionals' perceptions of facilitators and barriers to accessing family planning services in rural areas and the implications for women's psychosocial health and their ability to make timely decisions about a pregnancy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A thematic analysis confirmed that women in the Grampians region face many barriers including lack of local services, privacy, misinformation and judgmental service providers. While these issues could arise anywhere, the problem is compounded in rural areas by limited options and rural cultural pressures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study highlights the complexity of many rural women's reproductive 'choices', and recommends plausible strategies to tackle barriers and facilitate access to family planning services. Reproductive health research can benefit from community and health psychology perspectives that consider psychosocial and cultural contexts as well as biomedical factors.
authors.affiliation: College of Arts, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kruss
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gridley
mesh_terms: D000029:Abortion, Legal; D001294:Attitude to Health; D044363:Contraception, Postcoital; D003376:Counseling / Q000600:supply & distribution; D003469:Culture; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D011584:Psychology; D036301:Qualitative Research; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000600:supply & distribution; D012424:Rural Population; D014739:Victoria
keywords: abortion; emergency contraception; psychosocial health