Current status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many people in each (a) local authority and (b) NHS board area have accessed distress brief intervention services in each of the last five years.
Since launch in 2017, over 92,000 people have now been referred to our world-leading Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme. DBI is now live in every Health and Social Care Partnership area across Scotland, providing timely support to those in distress and easing pressures on frontline services.
A breakdown of Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) referrals by NHS Board level area for the financial years 2020-21 to 2024-25 is included in the following table. This data is not held at local authority level.
Table 1 – DBI Level 2 Local Referrals Across Scotland by Health Board for Financial Years 2020-21 to 2024-25
Health Board | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 23 | 264 | 455 | 861 | 953 |
NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 0 | 85 | 451 | 776 | 702 |
NHS Fife | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 448 |
NHS Forth Valley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 67 |
NHS Grampian | 1,092 | 1,244 | 1,276 | 1,612 | 1,664 |
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 22 | 329 | 546 | 4,601 | 5,405 |
NHS Highland | 863 | 888 | 917 | 1,208 | 1,539 |
NHS Lanarkshire | 2,451 | 2,283 | 2,463 | 2,722 | 2,404 |
NHS Lothian | 0 | 65 | 396 | 1,131 | 2,010 |
NHS Orkney | 0 | 7 | 31 | 123 | 40 |
NHS Scottish Borders | 922 | 1,148 | 1,103 | 1,120 | 889 |
NHS Shetland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 12 |
NHS Tayside | 0 | 0 | 195 | 1,380 | 1,525 |
NHS Western Isles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 |
Source: PHS DBI Level 2 Dataset for all referrals up to 31st March 2024 and from DBI Level 2 Provider Monthly Returns from 1st April 2024.
In addition to local provision, people can access DBI through national routes via NHS 24 and Police Scotland & Scottish Ambulance Service Call Centres. In total, 26,332 referrals have been made through the national pathways across 2020-21 to 2024-25.