Question reference: S5W-34849
- Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 28 January 2021
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Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Clare Haughey on 29 January 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress with the Distress Brief Intervention associate programme, which was announced in 2018.
Answer
The first DBI associate site went live in Moray in 2019; the lead agency and local DBI provider there is Penumbra.
There are now two more areas with associate programmes which have gone live this month. These are Inverclyde; and Ayrshire & Arran. The lead agencies and local DBI providers for these programmes are the Scottish Association for Mental Health & Penumbra respectively.
In the associate programme sites, the lead agencies are working closely with local partners including Health and Social Care Partnerships, Police Scotland, Primary Care, Emergency Departments, and others to provide DBI locally.
In addition, the Programme Manager for DBI is in discussion with several other areas in Scotland who have also expressed an interest in joining DBI as associate programmes. The associate sites are important building blocks towards our 2020 Programme for Government target of having DBI embedded in all Health Boards by 2024.
In 2019 we also expanded DBI so that it became available to 16- and 17-year olds. This was a commitment from Programme for Government 2018.
In addition, as part of our wider response to the Covid pandemic, in Spring 2020 we introduced a new pathway to DBI, in which people contacting NHS24 in emotional distress from anywhere in Scotland can, where assessed as appropriate, be referred for DBI support.
I would like to thank all our partners involved in the development and implementation of DBI thus far, for the vital support which they have provided to people in distress.