ABSTRACT
The most important difference was the under-representation of the highest-risk cases in the trial sample. Any findings from the experiment, therefore, cannot be applied to unselected parasuicide samples. High-risk clients - those who had previous psychiatric treatment as in- and out-patients, who had made previous suicide attempts, were sociopathic, had drinking problems and were not living in a family setting - seemed to do no better, or even slightly worse, with task-centred help than with the routine service. On the other hand, moderate- and low-risk clients and, in particular, younger people, women and those with relationship difficulties had significantly better outcomes with the task-centred than with the routine service. Independently of the client’s risk category, adherence to the task-centred structure seemed significantly associated with outcome. Whereas clients who had a broader range of target problems, receiving more services from the workers and overrunning the time limit appeared to do worse.
