Distress Brief Support Initiative
Compassionate, short-term support for everyday pressures
Distress Brief Support (DBS) Initiative is a community-based initiative that offers caring, practical, support to people experiencing life’s everyday challenges. It is a non clinical service providing connection, reassurance, and help from local community members at times when people may not reach out through traditional mental health pathways.
Distress Brief Support includes two complementary components designed to meet people where they are:
- Community Engagement Points: Who offer immediate support and information within the community.
- The Wellness Team: Who provides short-term support that is brief, practical assistance to help people manage challenges early.
Together, they create a warm, locally driven network of support.
The initiative is delivered across the Mareeba Shire and Atherton Tablelands. It has been codesigned with community members and organisations and reflects local strengths, local needs, and local ways of connecting.
What happens if someone is in distress?
Distress Brief Support offers a compassionate, calm response.
Distress looks different for everyone and can be linked to many pressures such as relationship challenges, financial worries, housing issues, ageing, or feeling disconnected. Not everyone needs a clinical response. Often, being noticed, heard, and supported with a simple next step can make a meaningful difference.
What Does a next step look like?
Connect with a Community Engagement Point. They are simply places where someone having a tough time might naturally turn to for a chat, connection, or support. Community Engagement Points are everyday locations where people gather and have conversations.
These include:
- Small businesses such as hairdressers, barbers, and cafés
- Workplaces including agricultural suppliers and workforce agencies
- Neighbourhood and community centres
- Sports clubs
- Faith and cultural groups
- Libraries and Men’s Sheds
- Community services offering social, health, tenancy, or financial support
What happens if a person accepts support with the Wellbeing Team?
If someone accepts a referral, the Wellbeing Team from Mareeba Community Centre Inc. will get in touch. Trained Wellbeing Support Officers provide free, confidential, non-clinical support for up to three weeks. They help people talk through what’s happening, explore options, access helpful services, and feel more connected. Support is delivered through community outreach across the region, with team members based close to the communities they serve.
Where is the service available?
The Distress Brief Support Initiative is available across the Mareeba Shire and Atherton Tablelands, including: Mareeba, Kuranda, Dimbulah, Mt Garnet, Ravenshoe, Malanda, Atherton, Chillagoe, and Julatten.
Who is delivering Distress Brief Support?
Distress Brief Support is a trial funded by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and Queensland Health.
Northern Queensland PHN commissions delivery across the region.
Service providers:
- Mareeba Community Centre Inc – delivering short-term support through ‘The Wellness Team’
- Beacon Strategies – establishing and supporting the Community Engagement Points network.
Values and approach
Distress Brief Support is grounded in relationship-centred practice, cultural respect, compassion, and local knowledge. The program strengthens the ability of communities to support their own, recognising that trusted relationships and everyday connections often make the biggest difference when someone is experiencing distress.
Get in contact with the teams
Wellness Team |
Mareeba Community Centre
Mobile: 0491 178 175
Phone: (07) 4092 1948
Email: enquiries@mccinc.org.au
Website: www.mccinc.com.au
Community Engagement Points and
Training | Beacon Strategies
Mobile: 0410 557 626
Email: schania@beaconstrategies.com.au
Website: www.netcep.com.au
What did we learn through our community consultation?
- Community members tend to reach out to family, friends, and social networks or groups when they are experiencing stress or distress, rather than formal services.
- There is a vast range of community groups already established that represent potential community engagement points.
- Whilst the DBS model does not include payment for community engagement points, it does include training, coordination support, and debriefing, and finding an agency to focus on this role is important (perhaps one with experience in volunteer coordination.)
- The workers in the short-term support team need to be locally based, rather than commuting from Cairns.
- We need to pay attention to rural towns in the region, not just the central locations of Mareeba and Atherton.
- Smaller community organisations are interested in the trial, but don’t have much experience in completing formal application processes for these sorts of activities.
Learn more about what we heard in our Background Reading: Distress Brief Support document.
Related pages
- Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drugs
- MyndKind
- Mental Health Stepped Care
- Mental Health Stepped Care Services Review
- Psychological Therapies in RACH
- Community wellness and suicide prevention grants
- Medicare Mental Health Centre
- Universal Aftercare
- Distress Brief Support
- Suicide prevention
- Initial Assessment and Referral – Decision Support Tool (IAR-DST)