QAS Chaplaincy program a national first

from QAS Insight Summer 2021-2022

Claire and Elliott set a high bar as finalists

What started as a labour of love has resulted in a national and international precedent this year, with QAS recruiting chaplains from within its own ranks to provide spiritual and pastoral care to staff and their families

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.

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.

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.

“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.”

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.

“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.”

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

people responded and all with valuable qualifications to bring to the roles.”

Clark said each of the 13 chaplains were and are still Peer Support Officers, and more chaplains may be brought on board next year. Chaplaincy, whilst starting to grow within the QAS, has not been without its challenges.

During Priority One courses in the past 1-2 years, some participants have been tentative about sitting in on the Chaplaincy session. Being tentative may be for various reasons - some may have had bad experiences or even sustained harm, and some may be of different or no faith. QAS Chaplains are compassionate, understanding, patient and kind, and some have their own unashamed faith journey. As a result, all Priority One course participants to date walk away surprised, validated and thankful for having sat in on the Chaplaincy session.

“Both the Chaplain Service and Priority One Service work in really well together and we will often refer people to the other if we think their needs might be better met by our colleagues, and this is why it’s handy for our chaplains to also be PSOs – to provide a support wraparound for our staff,” Clark said.

“People don’t have to have a faith to chat with us, and many don’t.

“We see ourselves as being ‘peoplecentred’ – we are non-denominational, and we’re not gender, sexuality, culture or religion specific.

“People coming to us might want to chat about a job they’ve just been to which has challenged their beliefs, or perhaps they just want to talk about some personal issues, or perhaps they may want to talk about their faith – what’s important to us is being there to offer spiritual support to our people.

“Our Chaplains are a good mix of ages, genders, have diverse life and work experiences and come with various fields of expertise, whether it’s a theology or divinity degrees and even ordained ministers.

In our shared QAS and chaplain roles, we do have a sound understanding of what we as first responders face in our everyday work challenge.

But best of all we’re great listeners and always up for a chat.”

For more information about the QAS Chaplaincy service, or how you can access it, click here [https://bit.ly/3sjfm7z] .

Our Chaplains: