Distress Brief Interventions (DBIs) are an innovative way of supporting people in distress.
The need to improve the response to people presenting in distress has been strongly advocated by people who have experience of distress and by front line service providers.
DBI consists of two parts; in the first part front line staff from health, police, ambulance and primary care staff are trained to recognise the ways people in distress can present and then to offer a compassionate response. These services are then able to offer further support of the second part of the DBI.
If people agree to ongoing support, they are contacted by our DBI provider within 24 hours of referral and are then offered person centred support for up 14 days after that. The staff help people manage their distress, help them solve problems, work with the person in distress to undertake distress management planning and provide emotional support. The service can also signpost people on to other services who may be able to help in the longer term, or help re connect people with services they have already had contact with.
In Scottish Borders this service is provided for us by the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH), with clinical leadership from a Senior Clinical Psychologist in NHS Borders.
The DBI service is available to anyone in the Borders who are over 16 years old and experiencing emotional distress but do not need an emergency response.
People can be access DBI in the Scottish Borders through contact with:
- GP
- Police Scotland
- Borders Crisis Team
- Accident and Emergency Department
- Wellbeing Service
- Local Area Coordination
- Scottish Ambulance Service
- Works Plus
- Borders Addiction Service
- Borders Emergency Care Service (BECS)
- Emergency Duty Team
An evaluation of the DBI pilot sites has recently been published by the Scottish Government. The evaluation is positive with and the findings suggest that DBI is effective in helping people reduce their distress. The Scottish Government has recommended DBI be rolled out to all Health Boards in Scotland.
If you would like to read more about the DBI evaluation, you can find it here:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/evaluation-distress-brief-intervention-pilot-programme/
If you have any queries about DBI in the Scottish Borders, please contact Dr Louise Keir, Senior Clinical Psychologist: louise.keir@borders.scot.nhs.uk
The national website is www.dbi.scot