Neami National (Neami) is a leading not-for-profit provider of community mental health services across Australia. In late 2025, Neami was commissioned by Country SA Primary Health Network (PHN) to pilot a new Distress Brief Support (DBS) service in Port Lincoln, South Australia, and surrounding Eyre Peninsula communities. The DBS service offers free, short-term (up to 3 weeks), non-clinical support for adults in psychological or situational distress, providing an alternative to hospital care and bridging a critical gap in the mental health system. Similar Distress Brief Support services are being trialled in other parts of Australia as part of a broader national reform agenda, drawing on international evidence such as Scotland’s Distress Brief Intervention program, which has supported over 75,000 people since 2017 (Scottish Government, 2024)

The Port Lincoln region is an Outer Regional community of around 15,000 people, located 650km from Adelaide. It experiences disproportionately high needs and limited service access: suicide rates in Outer Regional areas of Australia are approximately double those in major cities, and rates of self-reported mental health conditions exceed the state average (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2024; Country SA PHN, 2025). These challenges stem from geographic isolation, workforce shortages, socioeconomic disadvantage, and long travel distances for specialist care.

The DBS pilot aims to respond earlier to adults in psychological or situational distress and is part of national reforms towards “stepped care” – providing low-intensity, community-based support to prevent crises and reduce pressure on emergency and clinical services. As one local service provider observed,

Our Approach

Co-design is powerful, but it is rarely simple. It brings together people with different experiences, expectations and levels of power, and asks them to work through complex service realities together. For this reason, Impact Co.'s role was not just to facilitate conversations, but to create the conditions for people to contribute safely and meaningfully. We were engaged by Neami to co-design the Port Lincoln DBS service model alongside community members and local staff, using a structured process that centred lived and living experience, made space for local knowledge, and translated participant insights into practical service improvements.

Over a 3-month project, we guided a co-design journey that balanced openness with focus, ensuring the work was grounded in what people in distress said they need, while remaining feasible for Neami’s team to deliver. This included:

• A stocktake, involving a review of Country SA PHN’s DBS Program Guidelines and Neami’s internal DBS program data
• A Planning Process, in which we worked closely with the Port Lincoln Neami team to recruit, screen, and prepare the community co-designers
• Three co-design workshops, attended by community participants and two DBS Community Care Coordinators
• Two service provider surveys, distributed before and after the co-design workshops, giving Port Lincoln stakeholders the opportunity to shape and test the DBS service offering

In total, eight community co-designers – representing First Nations people, men, older adults, LGBTIQA+ people, people with disabilities and neurodiversity – took part in the workshops, alongside Neami’s two DBS Community Care Coordinators who provided invaluable support and perspective. From the outset, every session emphasised consent, safety and shared power: participants co-created group agreements, chose how to engage, and had access to debriefing support throughout. We privileged lived experience as the primary expertise in the room.

With the DBS service already in operation under clear PHN guidelines and limited funding, we guided the group to focus on improving key elements of the service rather than starting from scratch. Across three 2-hour workshops, participants tackled different stages of the DBS journey, including:

• First contact. Co-designers mapped how people in distress might first encounter support in everyday settings – endorsing places like libraries, sporting clubs, shops and Aboriginal community organisations where help could be offered without stigma. 
• Referral and intake. Co-designers reimagined these processes to be compassionate, clear and consent-led – favouring a conversational approach over forms, giving people control over how much they share, and ensuring any first contact is timely, gentle and on their terms.
• Care and support. Co-designers emphasised that support should be relational, not clinical, with emphasis on warm, human interaction. They highlighted the need to offer choice and flexibility at every step – from how someone accesses the service and who supports them, to how and where they receive care.

After each session, Impact Co. synthesised insights and developed a prototype model, which was refined with input from a Project Governance Group. This iterative approach ensured the final DBS model of care reflected what local people said they need and is feasible for a small team to deliver.

– DBS Community Care Coordinator, Port Lincoln

Future Impact

The co-designed model gives Neami a locally tailored approach to strengthen its Distress Brief Support service. It sets out practical improvements – such as embedding DBS in everyday community spaces (from libraries to sporting clubs), streamlining referrals and offering help quickly and flexibly. These changes will make support more approachable and culturally safe, helping diverse community members – including isolated rural residents, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and men in male-dominated industries – access timely, non-judgemental assistance in moments of distress. By providing earlier, relationship-based support and warm referrals to ongoing care, the service aims to de-escalate distress earlier, reduce avoidable emergency presentations, and support better mental health and wellbeing outcomes across the community. The PHN and Neami will continue to monitor outcomes closely as the refined model is rolled out, with early indications pointing to improved engagement and positive feedback from community members and providers alike.

This project also offers wider lessons for Australia’s mental health system. It demonstrates how place-based co-design can translate national initiatives, such as the DBS trial, to local realities, from rural workforce constraints to cultural context. The co-design insights, which emphasise the importance of flexibility, compassion, and community connection, contribute to a growing evidence base for PHN commissioning and future national guidelines on stepped-care and non-clinical supports. Through this work, Neami and Impact Co. have strengthened a vital service for the Port Lincoln community, while also contributing to a broader vision of safer, earlier support for people experiencing distress across regional Australia.