What is Distress?

People experience distress for many reasons — relationship pressures, finances, housing, ageing, health concerns, loneliness, or feeling disconnected.

Not everyone needs or wants a clinical response. Sometimes a supportive conversation, a listening ear, or help to take the next step is enough. People want to feel heard, and to be gently guided toward further support or short-term counselling if they choose it.

What is Distress Brief Support?

Distress Brief Support provides early, non-clinical support for adults experiencing distress. It recognises that being noticed, heard, and met with compassion can make a meaningful difference before issues escalate into crisis.

Distress Brief Support is a community-based model with two key components:

1. Community Engagement Points — local people, groups and organisations who are well-placed to notice when someone might be struggling. Community Engagement Points offer a compassionate first response and, if the person wants it, support them to connect with further help.
2. Short-Term Support Team (STST) — a trained, non-clinical team providing free, confidential support for up to three weeks. The team walks alongside a person, helping them make sense of what’s going on, explore options, and connect to longer-term supports, services, or community activities.

Working together, Community Engagement Points and the Short Term Support Team, create an early, community-based pathway that helps people feel supported, connected and in control of their next steps.

What is a Community Engagement Point?

A Community Engagement Point is any trusted person or place where everyday conversations happen, such as:

• Small businesses — cafés, barbers, hairdressers, retail
• Local workplaces 
• Neighbourhood and community centres
• Sporting clubs and recreation groups
• Faith and cultural organisations
• Libraries and Men’s Sheds
• Community services — social, health, tenancy, financial and more

Community Engagement Points are not mental health professionals. They are simply people who notice, listen, respond with care, and offer a connection to further support when it’s wanted.

How Community Engagement Points Help

As a Community Engagement Point, you might notice someone is doing it tough — at the counter, on the sideline at training, during an activity, or over a cuppa.

Your role is to:

• Notice — recognise when someone may be struggling.
• Respond — offer a warm, compassionate conversation.
• Connect — if they choose, offer a pathway to the Short-Term Support Team or other relevant community supports.

Community Engagement Points are often already doing this in informal, everyday interactions — checking in, listening, and offering support in the moments that matter.

Participation is flexible and voluntary, and we work with each Community Engagement Point to ensure the role feels manageable and fits naturally into what they already do.

How We Support Community Engagement Points

Here at Beacon Strategies, we work behind the scenes to support Community Engagement Points in their role. When you work with us, whether that be watching from afar or being directly involved, you can access:

• Regular check-ins with a local coordinator to talk through situations and build confidence
• Training to strengthen skills in responding to distress
• Practical resources and tools for everyday use
• Networking and peer connection with other Community Engagement Points in your region
• Debriefing and coaching, as needed

Becoming a Community Engagement Point is free. Our role is to walk alongside you — not to add burden, but to strengthen what you already do for your community.

Building a Network of Community Engagement Points

The Network of Community Engagement Points (NetCEP) brings together trusted, everyday places that play a quiet but powerful role in community wellbeing.

Our goal is to build a connected, supportive network that:

• Notices signs of distress earlier
• Responds consistently and compassionately
• Helps people access the right support at the right time
• Reduces the pressure on formal services
• Strengthens community capability over time

Build a Network of Community Engagement Points is designed to complement existing community groups and services — not replace them. It supports a broader shift toward early, community-based responses to distress.

Where We’re Working

We are currently building the Network of Community Engagement Points in:

• Atherton Tablelands and Mareeba Region – Delivered in partnership with Mareeba Community Centre and funded by Northern Queensland PHN.
• Ipswich — delivered in partnership with Open Minds and funded by Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN.