FARMINGTON – There will be a free conference for veterans, their families, and health professionals at the University of Maine Farmington Campus on Saturday, Sept. 20, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Hosted by Tri-County Mental Health Services with support from the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area, Americorps Vista, and many community volunteers, the conference will offer two dynamic speakers as well as nine different workshops on topics ranging from legal issues and re-integrating into family and community life to traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress.
Tri-County Mental Health Services is committed to building a strong network of supports in local communities for military veterans and their family members, whether they served decades ago or in the most recent conflicts. Most recently in Maine 6,500 kids have seen a parent deployed – sometimes more than once – for extended periods of time. The stress and turmoil of separation can have a lasting impact on even the strongest families and most resilient children. They live in every corner of Maine and go to local schools, but often their experiences and the unique challenges they and their families face are unnoticed.
“Our goal is to remove barriers and strengthen the supports available to vets and family members across Maine,” said TCMHS Executive Director Catherine Ryder.
The agency is host to Jerry DeWitt, a Vietnam Era Veteran working as a Vista Volunteer, who is a driving force in the outreach and conference planning.
“This conference will show the many paths each of us might take to find our way back home from service life to civilian life,” he said.
For more information and to register for this free conference, visit www.tcmhs.org or call Jerry DeWitt at 783-9141 x 228. Travel expense scholarships are available through Veterans For Peace. Contact Doug Rawlings at 778-7292 or rawlings@maine.edu.
Link to Register for Electronic Media: http://tinyurl.com/bringingworldstogether
About the Speakers
Keynote Speaker Kayla Williams is a former sergeant and Arabic linguist in a Military Intelligence company of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). During her deployment to Iraq, Sergeant Williams was at the forefront of troops’ interaction with Iraqis while also navigating the challenges of being part of the 15 percent of the Army that is female. Kayla is the author of Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army, a memoir about her experiences negotiating the changing demands on today’s military. Williams graduated cum laude with a BA in English Literature from Bowling Green State University, and earned an MA in International Affairs with a focus on the Middle East from American University. She is a former member of the VA Advisory Committee on Women Veterans and a current Truman National Security Project Fellow and member of the Army Education Advisory Committee. Williams currently lives near Washington, D.C. with her husband, a combat-wounded veteran, and their two children. Her second book, Plenty of Time When We Get Home: Love and Recovery in the Aftermath of War, about their family’s journey from trauma to healing, was recently released by W. W. Norton.
Featured speaker Robert H. Moore Ph.D is a licensed marriage and family therapist, school psychologist, and mental health counselor with graduate degrees in counseling psychology from Lehigh (1965) and Walden (1977) Universities. He is a Fellow and Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Psychotherapists; a Diplomate of the International Academy of Behavioral Medicine, Counseling and Psychotherapy. With over thirty years of practice, seventeen as Director of the Institute for Rational Living in Florida, he has co-edited or contributed to six popular books by Albert Ellis; authored chapters on various applications of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) for professional texts by Windy Dryden, Larry Hill, and Janet Wolfe; hosted his own nationally syndicated, daily talk radio program; and produced over three hundred psychologically-topical news and public service segments for radio and television. He currently operates a Domestic Violence Intervention Program in Clearwater under contract to Florida’s Department of Corrections.
Tri-County Mental Health Services is Maine’s most comprehensive agency dealing with the psychological and social well-being of children, adults, and elders. TCMHS serves about 10,000 individuals each year with innovative programs and services addressing mental health, substance abuse, intellectual disabilities, and more. Its philosophy of building toward recovery and sensitivity to traumatic experiences gives hope to individuals, families, and communities in Androscoggin, Cumberland, Franklin and Oxford counties. For more information, visit www.tcmhs.org. or call 1-888-304-HOPE(4673).
