Distress support service extended to Ayrshire and Arran and Inverclyde
The service offers more support for people in emotional distress.
More support is being made available to people experiencing emotional distress.
The Scottish Government's Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme is being extended to Ayrshire and Arran and Inverclyde healthboard areas.
If someone presents as ‘in distress’ to emergency services or in a primary care setting, this programme can offer them a call from a trained operator within 24 hours. They will then be provided with up to two weeks of one-to-one support to help address issues which might be contributing to their distress, including, for example, money worries and relationship problems.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran are the latest health board to launch a DBI programme, following the rollout of a local service in Inverclyde earlier this month. Since it began in 2017, the programme has been made available in ten Health and Social Care Partnership areas.
Mental Health Minister Clare Haughey said: “This is an innovative programme and, we believe, world-leading intervention which provides vital support to people experiencing emotional distress. It is a crucial part of the wide range of actions we are taking to improve public mental health and wellbeing.
“Since its launch in 2017 over 12,800 people have been referred for support and these new sites, in addition to the new pathway through the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub helpline, will help us expand this service across Scotland by 2024.”
National DBI Programme Manager Kevin O’Neill said: “Our partners across Ayrshire and Arran and Inverclyde have shown incredible collaboration in support of building connected compassionate support for people in distress.
“We welcome our new regions to the growing DBI community and we look forward to working and learning with them in our collective programme of incremental growth and continuous improvement with the shared ambition of providing the best connected compassionate support possible.”
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