QAS Chaplaincy Program a national first What started as a labour of love has resulted in a national and international precedent this year, with the QAS recruiting chaplains from within its own ranks to provide spiritual and pastoral care to staff and their families.
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As a result, 13 QAS chaplains can access stations and staff across the state without COVID-19 restrictions or lockdowns affecting face to face chats.
“With around 260 combined years in the service, our chaplains certainly understand the highs and lows of a paramedic’s life because we also live it.”
QAS chaplains are now based in stations across most of the regions to increase accessibility to the service including at South Johnstone, Ingham, Clermont, Burnett Coast, Birtinya, Maroochydore OpCen, Kenmore, Kedron Park, Southport (OpCen), Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Murgon and Miles.
The unique concept of recruiting an internal full-time chaplain, which then grew to a team of internally recruited chaplains, was the shared brainchild of QAS’s s Priority One Director Todd Wehr.
According to QAS’s Clarke Magele, Chaplain Executive Manager, SpiritualPastoral Welfare, the COVID-19 restrictions were keenly felt in various states and territories throughout Australia during the height of lockdowns with contracted chaplains unable to access stations to provide pastoral care to staff. “Recruiting our own internal chaplains has provided immense benefits to our service,” Clark said. “Firstly, we weren’t (and won’t be) affected by COVID-19 restrictions and secondly, as all of our chaplains are QAS staff – mostly operational paramedics – they share lived experience with our staff and know exactly what the demands of the job are.
“The idea came about with the retirement of our previous chaplain, Neil Proelecks, one of the Service’s two previous part time chaplains who had both been paramedics,” Todd said. “We’d worked closely together for years and the idea grew from a discussion we’d shared about future provisions for the chaplaincy service. “We identified the service really needed a full-time chaplain to match the demand, and that person needed to be someone who had worked within the organisation, who understood both the work and culture,” Todd said. “We took our suggestions to the then Commissioner Russell Bowles, who was supportive and keen to get this project happening.”
Summer 2021–22
When Todd discussed these plans with QAS Peer Support Officers he discovered Clark, South Townsville’s then Officer in Charge, also held credentials as an Ordained Minister. “Clark is very good at connecting people, and he embodies the type of person we wanted in this role – he’s highly respected as a paramedic and a highly respectful person to people seeking pastoral care or spiritual guidance,” Todd said. Clark acted in the role in Townsville before being appointed full-time Chaplain, relocating with his wife to Brisbane in what he described was a big, but exciting change. Todd said having Clark in this fulltime role was integral to growing the chaplaincy team. “With Clark as our new ‘face of chaplaincy’ we saw significantly increased demand with people wanting to talk to him about issues they felt were separate to something they’d discuss with a psychologist,” Todd said. “After looking at chaplaincy models from a statewide perspective we called for EOIs from staff, and we were thrilled with the response – more than 50
