AMBIT is not a "diagnosis"- or "problem"-driven therapeutic approach, but instead is designed to offer an adaptable framework for supporting local teams and systems in working effectively with people with complex problems who find help difficult to make use of.

An assumption is that the problems that workers may attempt to help with often include mental health difficulties such as depression, anxiety, anger, substance use or relationship breakdowns, and that these often occur in the context of poverty or deprivation, and on a background of abuse, neglect or educational failure.

The young people AMBIT was designed for may have very negative views or experiences of conventional helping agencies, or of asking for help in the most general terms.

Settings for AMBIT work

AMBIT can be (and is being) applied in a wide range of settings - from statutory (NHS) teams working with severe mental health problems, to non-statutory (charity) services working at street level with young people.

AMBIT is there to support and foster the development of LOCAL expertise, rather than to replace or reject that in favour of 'alien ways of working'. It is about developing real collaboration between theory, evidence-based practice and local experience, rather than one seeking to 'browbeat' the others.

By and large AMBIT provides both ORGANISATIONAL structures to help teams work together, as well as INTERVENTION MODALITIES to offer advice about What to do? - see AMBIT: an overview for more detail on this.