No abstract

Clients' experiences of routine alcohol assessment interviews at a therapeutic day unit were studied in order to enhance understanding of the factors associated with subsequent engagement in treatment. The paper describes the development and use of the Client's Experiences and Satisfaction Questionnaire. The main finding from its use with 131 clients, was a positive association between the client's perceptions of the quality of the therapeutic relationship established during the interview, and subsequent engagement in treatment. Large differences were found between the engagement rates of different workers. Clients who were being referred for the first time and those with a SADQ score below 30 were less likely to engage. The findings are augmented with quotes from the clients themselves.

Ten years after continence training, 14 severely and profoundly mentally handicapped individuals were found to have substantially maintained their improvements in bladder control. Completely independent self‐initiated toileting had not been maintained, but the level of prompting to toilet was considerably less than before training. Those who had received intensive individual training fared much better than those who had received less intensive group training. Intensive individual training was found to be cost effective and resulted in very substantial savings in carer time.