Not everyone needs counseling, however, and counseling may not be able to help everyone. Some people prefer to obtain information and condoms privately, often from friends or relatives. Certainly, access to condoms should never be limited because counseling is not available. The mass media can provide much information about how to use condoms, where to obtain them, and, through dramatic depictions, even how to discuss condoms with one's sex partner. Counseling is most important for those at greatest risk for example, clients receiving treatment for STIs.
Counseling can help people initiate and sustain condom use.
Rehearsing with a client each step of condom use, from buying the condom to disposing of it, can help make using condoms part of the client's routine. In very high-risk situations, continued counseling may be important. In Kigali, Rwanda, couples in which one partner was infected with HIV were tested and counseled every three months. Teaching condom skills. Many men do not know how to use condoms.