Fife launch for mental health service that provides immediate support in times of distress

The Distress Brief Intervention service (DBI) in the Kingdom is provided by SAMH (Scottish Action for Mental Health). The charity works closely with the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership’s frontline colleagues, such as primary care teams, Police Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service, who will ease the distress of those they come into contact with and when appropriate, refer the person to the compassionate, person-centred support they need.

The DBI service will then contact the person within 24 hours and, over the next two weeks, work closely with them receiving support to complete a distress management plan, develop coping strategies, and establish connections with people and organisations within their local community.

Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport, visited the SAMH Fife DBI service to meet the people at the heart of the service.

She said: “The programme is a key element in the provision of unscheduled care for people in distress. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to visit DBI colleagues in Fife as part of our rollout programme towards having it live in all NHS board areas. Up to January 2024, DBI had already supported over 58,600 people, and I look forward to hearing how using this innovative intervention has helped people in distress locally.”

Since DBI started in 2017, SAMH has supported an average of more than 100 people per week. The overwhelming majority of people who have used the services report having received a compassionate response, which helped them feel more able to manage both their immediate and future distress, with levels of distress reducing significantly over the two-week period.

They includes people like Debbie, who was referred to DBI in Fife by a primary care mental health nurse after experiencing heightened anxiety and being signed off work with long-term She received six sessions of direct support, completed a safe plan, built a more positive routine, began practising cognitive behavioural techniques and re-engaged with old hobbies and interests. She also reached out to her GP to arrange an appointment to discuss anxiety, and was signposted to Time for You, an online wellbeing support service provided by SAMH.

Debbie said: “By the time I finished working with DBI I was surprised that we had managed to get to the point we had. Although the issue causing me the stress couldn’t be fixed quickly, DBI helped me to find ways to cope with my stress and manage my ways of thinking.

“Although there is still a lot of work for me to do, working with this service has really helped me and I would hate to think of the position I would be in if I didn’t have access to it.”

The launch of the Fife service was given a warm welcome.

Alex Cumming, executive director of operations at SAMH, said:It is our ambition that anyone seeking support with their mental health should be able to ask once and get the right help fast. Two weeks may seem like a short time, but it is remarkable how much people can achieve with appropriate, compassionate support, which is exactly what our DBI services provide.”