More than 100,000 people have been referred to a mental health initiative which provides immediate, non-clinical support to those in need. The Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme, launched in 2016, offers personalised support to people who present to emergency or primary care services in distress. Initially, trained front line staff provide a compassionate response [...]
Picture: Front cover of the Evaluation of the Under 18s Elements of Distress Brief Intervention Report The Scottish Government has now published the report of the independent evaluation elements of the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme which affect under 18s. We are grateful to the contractors (ScotCen - Scottish Centre for Social Research, working [...]
Organisations across the Western Isles are uniting through the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme, to build and provide connected compassionate support, helping Western Isles locals with crucial mental health support when they need it the most. The Scottish Government Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme is a world first, starting as a pilot and now [...]
Police Scotland increased the number of officers who can train their local policing colleagues in Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) at training event in Glenrothes on Wednesday, 19 February, 2025. Training for DBI trainers was delivered to 70 police officers in the company of partner organisations including the DBI Central Team, NHS 24, University of [...]
Pictured: Public Health Minister Jenni Minto, meets with representatives of DBI community at Police Scotland West of Scotland Command Regional Headquarters. Experts describe programme as “world leading”. All 31 Health and Social Care Partnerships have now signed up to a programme which supports people experiencing distress. The Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) service was first [...]
Pictured (L-R): Alex Cumming, Executive Director of Operations at SAMH; Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport; Nicky Connor, Director of Health and Social Care at Fife Health and Social Care Partnership; and Kevin O’Neill, National Distress Brief Intervention Programme Manager A mental health service that provides two weeks of [...]
Pictured: Maree Todd, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport The Distress Brief Intervention programme (DBI), which was set up to improve the response to people presenting to frontline service in distress, has now provided support to over 50,000 people who were referred for help. Background The Scottish Government launched the DBI Programme [...]
Pictured: Maree Todd, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport A new ground-breaking e-learning module, designed and developed by the University of Glasgow and funded by the Scottish Government, is being launched to enable and empower organisations and people from across Scotland to provide a compassionate and effective response to people in distress. [...]
Pictured: Kevin Stewart MSP, Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care An independent evaluation, which looked at the Scottish Government’s extension of the Distress Brief Intervention programme (DBI) as part of the national COVID response, found that the extended DBI service adapted and integrated successfully with the NHS24 Mental Health Hub to deliver connected compassionate [...]
The Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) will lead the DBI Impact Evaluation on Suicide and Self-harm (DIMES) project to evaluate the impact of Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) on suicidal ideation, suicidal behaviour and self-harm. DBI has been piloted in Scotland since 2017 as a unique approach to supporting those in distress who present [...]
