The Grey Medallion program is a water safety and lifesaving skills initiative for older adults. It aims to encourage a healthy, independent and active lifestyle through the development of essential skills in order to participate in aquatic recreation activities safely.

This practical program provides older adults with personal survival techniques, improved swimming skills, skills to deal with emergency situations and a thorough understanding of water safety knowledge in order to reduce the likelihood of drowning.

Unfortunately, older Australians (those aged 55 and over) make up a large proportion of the drowning statistics in Australia and as the population is ageing this continues to increase. According to the Royal Life Saving National Drowning Report for 2015, there were 89 drowning deaths of people aged 55 years and over which accounted for 33% of all drowning deaths. Open water environments particularly rivers, creeks and streams are a concern to this life stage and with the diversity of activities they are participating in, drowning prevention becomes a challenge.