"A person to talk to who really cared": high-risk mothers' evaluations of services in an intensive intervention research program.

After one to four years of participation in an intensive NIMH intervention project, 30 mothers selected because of extreme high risk for difficulties in parenting gave ratings regarding changes they had made in their lives and the services they were offered. They felt that their lives had changes markedly and ranked the caring relationship with the staff clinicians and abstract rather than concrete services as most important. Training and policy implications are discussed.