THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

Problem solving therapy (PST) is a brief and focused psychological intervention that has been used with a variety of client groups including people with depression, chronic illness, and suicidal thoughts and behaviours... Our team has designed a treatment programme and provided problem solving therapy for people who presented to the emergency departments of several major hospitals in New Zealand following an episode of self harm. Our results for this large-scale randomised controlled trial have indicated that PST resulted in reductions in hopelessness, suicidal thinking and depression, and improvements in problem solving abilities among people who received the therapy... Our primary outcome measure was the Beck Hopelessness Scale, which has been shown to be a valid and reliable predictor of the likelihood of future self harm episodes. We found that people who agreed to be included in the PST group reported significantly greater reductions in their reported levels of hopelessness than..

Also known as: problem solving therapy