DBI Impact Evaluation on Suicide and Self-Harm

What is the study about?

An intervention called “Distress Brief Intervention” (DBI) is being used by a range of organisations in Scotland, including the NHS and the police, to make first contact with people in emotional distress as caring as possible. DBI aims to contact people in distress within 24 hours and offers around two weeks of support (DBI Level 2). This study aims to explore whether and how DBI helps people deal with distress and also any thoughts and feelings of suicide and self-harm.

ScotCen Social Research, along with the University of Glasgow, University of Stirling Glasgow Caledonian University and University of Edinburgh, has been funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to carry out this research. ScotCen is part of NatCen Social Research, Britain’s leading centre for independent social research. We have no political affiliations or shareholders and have an international reputation for delivering high quality research.

Do I have to take part?

No. Taking part is voluntary. You are being invited to take part because you have been referred to DBI Level 2 and are aged 16 or over. You do not have to take part if you don’t want to. Whether you take part or not will not affect the support that you receive from DBI.

What's involved?

You are being invited to fill in four short questionnaires about your experience of using DBI. Your first questionnaire will be completed at your first DBI support session and will consist of questions about how you are feeling, your recent health and health care, and your thoughts on DBI. We would also like you to complete questionnaires at three other time points: after your final DBI support session and then 3-months and a year after that to see how you’re getting on. As a thank you for taking part, you will receive a £10 voucher for each survey that you complete.

If you agree, we would also like to link this information to the routine data that is collected about you by your DBI practitioner, such as your age and sex. Then if you agree, we would like to link that combined information to NHS data on use of services (such as A & E, GP out of hours and unplanned hospital admission). This information is stored in a dataset called the Unscheduled Data Mart developed by Public Health Scotland (PHS), NHS 24 and Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS). By linking this data, we can look at the unplanned health services you used a year before and the year after DBI. To link this information, we would use a unique code to protect your identity on any study documentation. This information will not include any personally identifiable information such as your name or contact details.

In addition to the four questionnaires, you will also be given the opportunity to take part in discussions about your experiences of DBI at three time points; 1 month, 3-4 months, and 1 year following your final DBI session. If you do this, as a thank you for your time, you will receive a £25 voucher following each interview.

If you are happy for us to contact you, please give your contact details at the end of your final DBI session survey and we will send you further information on what taking part in an interview would involve.

Is this research confidential?

Yes. We will treat the information you give in the strictest confidence under the Data Protection Act 2018. The results collected are used for research purposes only and no one looking at the findings will be able to identify you in any way. Your care providers will not have access to this information and will not know whether you decide to take part.

Privacy notice

For further information about how the DBI evaluation team processes personal data for research purposes and your data rights please visit the privacy notice page.

What will happen to any information I give?

Your answers will be treated with care and with full respect for your privacy. Your survey answers will be held securely by ScotCen. If you agree to have your survey information linked, it will also be held by Public Health Scotland for 2 years after the end of the study and will be managed in accordance with data protection legislation. The information you give will only be accessed by members of the research team for research purposes. It will not be possible for anyone not in the immediate research team to connect any information containing personal identifiers like names with any other information you give in the questionnaire. Consent forms will be stored separately from any other information you provide.  You will only be contacted for research purposes.

Whether you take part or not, and any information that you give, will in no way affect the support that you receive from the DBI team.

What are the risks or benefits of taking part?

There are no risks in taking part in the research. Your responses will not be known to your DBI practitioner and it will not affect the service you are offered in any way, if you decide not to take part. 

You can stop taking part in the survey at any point. If you would like to withdraw from the study, please contact: DIMES@scotcen.org.uk.

Your answers will help us find out about what DBI is doing well and how it can be improved. Taking part is completely voluntary, but we do hope you will get involved.

Where can I find out more?

If you have any questions, please contact the evaluation team at DIMES@scotcen.org.uk. If you wish to make a complaint about this study, you can either email the address above or phone ScotCen on 0131 240 0210.

What do I do now?

If you would like to take part in the evaluation, your DBI practitioner will give you a consent form and a paper questionnaire or a link to the online survey to fill in. You can hand your completed paper questionnaire back to your DBI practitioner or pop it into the freepost envelope and it will come directly to the evaluation team.

If you do not want to take part, just let your DBI practitioner know, you don’t have to give a reason.

For further information about how the DBI evaluation team processes personal data for research purposes and your data rights please visit the privacy notice page.

This study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) [HSDR Programme (132715)]

Sources of support

At some time in all of our lives we feel down, depressed or blue. If you are feeling down, or are worried about something and would like to speak to someone, please click on the link to see the list of organisations.