Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioner - Edinburgh GP's DBI

This is an exciting opportunity to join the further development of the DBI approach across Scotland, which has widely been recognised as innovative and pioneering.

The Scottish Government (SG) is focused on improving responses to people in distress. The DBI programme emerged through direct engagement with citizens who have experienced distress, front-line service providers and literature review. The SG established the DBI programme, which is hosted and led by South & North Lanarkshire H&SCP's, via a DBI Central Team and has been tested, developed and continuously improved in Aberdeen, Inverness, North and South Lanarkshire and Scottish Borders. Many other parts of Scotland are engaged with DBI through the associate programmes, benefiting from the knowledge, infrastructure and tools developed including to support of the effective delivery of the DBI COVID 19 response programme.

Since 2017 the programme has been building a large and far reaching national and regional distress collaboration between health and social care, emergency services (Primary Care, Police Scotland, Scottish Ambulance Service and Emergency Departments) and third sector, putting citizens at the centre, providing early intervention, reducing duplication, increasing efficiency and improving outcomes and experience for people experiencing distress and those providing support.

A clear vision of connected, compassionate support has cultivated an ethos of collaboration. The de-medicalisation of distress and focus on people as citizens enables a sense of ownership and inclusion with compassion defined as "a sensitivity to distress together with the commitment, courage and wisdom to do something about it". This underpins a shared commitment to collective action.

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 improving experience and outcomes for those experiencing distress and those providing support.