Mind Australia and Primary Care Connect are seeking expressions of interest to help design a new compassionate community based support service in Shepparton, Victoria.
In September 2024, Mind and Primary Care Connect were announced as the lead providers of the Distress Brief Support Trial in Greater Shepparton. The program aims to support people to understand and develop skills to manage distress and connect them with local services for ongoing support in the community.
The Distress Brief Support program is recommendation 27 from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, which emphatically emphasised the need for mental health supports to be designed by people with lived and living experience of psychological distress.
Mind and Primary Care Connect are hosting a series of workshops with members of the Shepparton community who have an experience of being in distress or who have supported someone in distress.
These workshops will help shape the Distress Brief Support Trial from the ground up, and they will contribute to the development of an approach that is designed by the Shepparton community, for the Shepparton community.
A group of up to 12 people from across the Shepparton community will attend seven half-day sessions to be held on Tuesday mornings between mid-February and April 2025. Participants will be paid $231 for each half-day session.
Click here to express your interest in participating in these workshops. If you have any questions, contact Jacquie Simpson ([email protected]) or Harriet McDougall ([email protected]).
What is Distress Brief Support?
Distress Brief Support is a short-term (two to three week), community-based approach that offers a compassionate, non-clinical response to adults who are experiencing distress. It has two levels of support:
- Community Engagement Point – staff or volunteers at community engagement points will be trained to recognise signs of distress and provide an immediate compassionate response to someone experiencing distress. They will also offer the option to connect them to the Short-term Support Service.
- Short-term Support Service – non-clinical staff will provide person-centred and practical support for up to three weeks in a welcoming and inclusive environment to help the person navigate and begin to manage the drivers of their distress. The short-term support team will also support the person to establish connections with longer-term supports in the community.
The Distress Brief Support Trial is jointly funded between the Australian and Victorian governments. The program is anticipated to commence by July 2025, and it will be evaluated over a two-year period.
Register your interest
Be part of designing a new community wellbeing support in Greater Shepparton – for more information please view the flyer and register your interest using the Expression of interest form.
Mind Primary Care Connect Flyer (PDF 106 KB)
For more information about Mind’s range of services, visit the Mind Service finder or phone 1300 286 463.