Specialist Intervention Services

Our Specialist Intervention Services (SIS) team provides psychological assessment and therapeutic support for young people at Kibble. The SIS team has over 15 years’ experience of providing trauma-informed psychological consultation, assessment and therapeutic interventions for children with complex and challenging needs. Kibble is also the largest provider of specialist intervention services across secure care in Scotland.

SIS take an integrative approach, ensuring that all young people and their families get the right support, at the right time, using the right therapeutic trauma-informed approaches.

First-Level Psychological Assessment

Within 72 hours of admission to Kibble, each young person engages in a first-level psychological assessment (FLPA). This assessment is conducted by a psychologist and enables us to understand the immediate needs of the young person.

At this assessment, we will screen for any acute mental health difficulties, adverse childhood experiences, drug misuse, suicidal ideation or self-harm behaviour. We also work in partnership with the young person to find out how they feel we can best support them. The FLPA will then inform multi-disciplinary decision-making around treatment planning.

The SIS Team

Building strong relationships are key throughout Kibble, and for many young people this may offer the caring and stability they’ve not previously experienced. The connection young people make with the familiar faces that they see regularly are important and they will often receive support from a dedicated SIS team member.

Staff come from a range of professional backgrounds, which allows us to take a more comprehensive multi-disciplinary approach to supporting every child in our care, including:

• Psychology
• Health & wellbeing
• Social work
• Counselling
• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
• Art therapy
• Play therapy
• Systemic family therapy.

All staff are registered with relevant professional bodies in accordance with their remit within the service and receive regular clinical supervision.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

We offer a holistic, therapeutic model of care at Kibble that looks at the overall wellbeing of each young person, taking into consideration both their mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. As such the eight SHANARRI indicators inform all aspects of our work.

Research into Practice

The team are involved in ongoing research to ensure that we continue to evaluate and develop our service in accordance with best practice. Our Clinical Director, Dan Johnson, has completed a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship on how trauma-informed principles can be translated into tangible practice in residential and secure care in the UK. Visit our resources section to view all ongoing research across the charity.

Consultancy Support

The SIS team also provides consultancy services to the wider community. This includes:

• Psychological assessment
• Consultation and therapies to young people living at home or in foster care, or those in residential or secure care across Scotland
• Training within schools on how to develop a therapeutic, trauma informed model