Table 1.

Description of patient participants

	Pseudonym	Gender	Age years	Marital status	Mental Health Diagnosis	Living Situation	Employment Situation a	Number of CTOs	Number of years as client of Mental Health Services	Stage of Current CTO b	CTO On/Off experience c
1	Vicky	Female	Early 50s	Married	Schizophrenia	With husband	Unemployed DSP	2	3	8 months	Intermittent
2	John	Male	Mid 40s	Single	Schizophrenia	Alone (long-stay locked institutional care during his 20s)	Unemployed DSP	15 + (lost count)	28	8 months	Continuous
							Intermittent work
3	Peter	Male	Early 30s	Single	Schizoaffective Disorder	Alone	Unemployed DSP	6+ (lost count)	14	9 months	Continuous
4	Jessica	Female	Early 50s	Single	Schizophrenia	Alone	Unemployed DSP	5	17	8 months	Intermittent
5	Susan	Female	Mid 30s	Divorced	Schizophrenia, Borderline Personality Disorder, Obsessive compulsive disorder, Depression	Hostel	Unemployed DSP	4	12	6 months	Intermittent & Continuous
6	Thomas	Male	Late 20s	Single	Schizoaffective disorder, Bipolar Affective Disorder	Alone	Unemployed DSP	6 (lost count)	9	6 months	Intermittent & Continuous
7	Joan	Female	Early 50s	Divorced	Schizophrenia	Alone	Unemployed DSP	4 (cannot remember)	13	9 months	Intermittent & Continuous
							Intermittent work
8	Jenny	Female	Late 20s	Single	Schizophrenia, Borderline Personality Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Depression	Alone	Unemployed DSP	2	10	6 months	Intermittent

^aDSP Disability Support Pension, government payment

^bAll CTOs were for 12 months

^cFor example, Susan has had intermittent and continuous experiences of being on a CTO. She had her first 12-month order, then had 2–3 years without an order, then has had 3 orders in a row