Presbyterian Connection: Braemar Residents Celebrate Royal Flying Doctor’s 90th Year

Residents at Braemar Presbyterian Care’s Cooinda aged care residence will fly into Australian aviation history this week when they are joined by members of the WA-based Royal Flying Doctor Service for an informative talk.

The talk forms part of Braemar’s extensive enrichment program, which sees a range of qualified speaker’s present informative talks to seniors at the facility.

With the Royal Flying Doctor in its 90th year, the talk will be given by Michelle Grant, RFDS’s Local Area Marketing Coordinator, who will speak about the foundations of the RFDS, the fact that the Presbyterian Reverend John Flynn who started the service is on the Australian $20 note, the early flights in small Qantas propeller planes and the fact that the RFDS is actually a flying intensive care unit in the sky and not simply an air ambulance.

Chief Executive of Braemar Presbyterian Care, Wayne Belcher said the team at Braemar were committed to providing residents with access to an enrichment program throughout the year, to support a full and engaging life.

“Braemar’s focus is to provide our residents with an enrichment program year round, with topics sourced off the back of resident feedback and from suggestions from our therapy team. We call it ‘Care and Friendship’ and it sees us working with residents to create meaningful experiences” he says.

Braemar was established in 1952 as a community service to the aged founded by the Presbyterian Church. It shares a common heritage with the Royal Flying Doctor Service which was itself established by the Presbyterian Minister, Rev. John Flynn who today can be found on the Australian $20 note.

“Rev. John Flynn was a Presbyterian Minister, who dedicated his life to the service of humanity. He founded the Australian Inland Mission, and later established what became the Royal Flying Doctor Service; to care and support for those living in the bush,” Mr. Belcher explains.

“For many of our own residents, the Flying Doctor was part of their lives while living or working in rural and remote WA, so there is a great deal of interest in learning more about the service that Rev. John Flynn founded during its 90th anniversary year.”

Find out more about Braemar Presbyterian Care.