Distress Brief Intervention - Durham and Derwentside

The Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme (a well-established service embedded across Scotland) provides a compassionate, time limited response for adults (16+) experiencing emotional distress. It offers rapid, person centred, practical support aimed at preventing escalation into crisis services, reducing avoidable demand on urgent and emergency pathways, and improving individuals' ability to cope and self-manage.

Findings demonstrate that the DBI service is an effective, valued, and efficient component of the local mental health system, providing measurable clinical, operational, and system benefits through early intervention and strong partnership working.

TEWV are intending to award a contract to an existing provider following direct award process C for 12 months at a contract value of £233,000.

This service is a recognised intervention to support individuals, and will initially be delivered in the Derwentside area in Tees Valley and County Durham. In becoming an associate site of the established Scottish National DBI programme, becoming part of the growing DBI learning community, working and learning with DBI partners in support of the continuous improvement of the DBI approach.

The Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme is an established service in Scotland. DBI is a time-limited, supportive and problem-solving contact with an individual in distress. It is delivered to all presentations of distress (including self-harm) that have an emotional component and that do not require (further) emergency service involvement. This includes people who may not directly seek help themselves, but who are referred for assistance by others because of their perceived distress.

The overarching aim of the DBI programme is to provide a framework for improved inter-agency co-ordination, collaboration and co-operation across a wide range of care settings, interventions and community supports, towards the shared goal of providing a compassionate and effective response to people in distress, enabling them to be more able to manage current and future distress.