FARMINGTON — Former U.S. Navy SEAL Robert Foley will be the keynote speaker at the Bringing Worlds Together Conference for Veterans, Family Members and Community on Saturday, Sept. 17. The conference is offered by Tri-County Mental Health Services.

Foley is an inspirational speaker who speaks nationally for U.S. veteran groups and others. His presentations address sensitive issues on post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma and veteran suicide. Foley will convey strategies to curb veteran suicide and share opportunities for collaboration between mental health professionals and one of their most valuable unrecognized resource tools — veterans.

After his keynote speech, Foley will be joined in the morning and afternoon conference sessions by Portland-based psychiatrist Ben Grasso, MD, to discuss Body Alarm Management, a unique model of understanding how to live with the ancient biology in the brain. Grasso and Foley will offer a road map for coping with PTSD as a natural, predictable consequence of exposure to the horrors of war.

“This conference will show the many paths each of us might take to find our way back home from service life to civilian life,” said Tri-County Mental Health Services veterans outreach specialist and Vietnam-era veteran Jerry DeWitt.

Registration is available online at tinyurl.com/gragpfu. Funds for travel expense scholarships are available by emailing [email protected].

FMI: 207-783-9141, ext. 228, www.operationveteranwellness.org, [email protected].

Richard Lumb PhD. to Speak at Bringing World’s Together 

FARMINGTON — Richard Lumb PhD., emeritus associate professor and chair, Department of Criminal Justice, State University of New York at Brockport will be the featured speaker at the upcoming Bringing Worlds Together Conference.

Dr. Lumb served for 24 years in law enforcement, including being a member of the Maine State Police force and serving as chief of police in two communities. He provides a series of comprehensive consulting services to police, corrections and public and private organizations.

Lumb will be joined by a panel of officers including, Sheriff James Merry, Sagadahoc County, president of Maine Sheriffs Association; Elizabeth Braestrup, chaplain, Maine Warden Service; and Chief Philip Crowell, Auburn Police Department.

The panels’ discussion will address the needs of first responders and emergency services employees, many with military experience, from persistent exposure to stress, adversity, and trauma.

Lumb will be joined in the morning and afternoon sessions by Chief Dana Kelley, Old Orchard Beach Police; DCP Timothy Deluca, Old Orchard Beach Police; and Sgt. Jon Shapiro, Maine State Police for “Examples from the Front Line.”

These sessions will address what first responder and emergency service personnel experience in their jobs, the detriment to first responders’ psychological, emotional, physiological and social well-being, how to protect employees and provide a healthy environment where reconciliation occurs, and which models are most effective for achieving these goals.