First Responder & Military Personnel Mental Wellness & Suicide Awareness Conferences
A shared opportunity for all from police, fire, EMS, 9-1-1, military, corrections, peace officers, sheriffs, fish and wildlife officers, commercial vehicle enforcement, animal and bylaw officers, security personnel, and front line medical workers and their families to come together in one place to remember the people we have lost to suicide, recognize many today are still suffering in silence, and identify what we can do as a collective to build resiliency and healthy workplaces through awareness and education.
First Responders and Military Personnel are key stakeholders for our safe and healthy communities, and often fail to recognize they too also require support and care to ensure their health for a long career as well as life after their service.
Please join us this year to learn more about the topic of suicide, the most common concerns around mental health and addictions, how to build resiliency in today’s fast-paced world and be a part of the network that is promoting understanding and compassion to reduce stigma and foster hope.
Update to 2022 conferences:
legacy place seeks accredited education partnerships that contribute to building resiliency as an individual and/or as a family. this includes increasing knowledge, reduce stigma and enable networking by organizing and facilitating mental wellness and suicide awareness workshops/conferences and family camp.
**mental health suicide awareness conferences
COVID 19 protocols has presented the need to embrace technology and continue providing our law enforcement, emergency medical/fire services, 911 dispatch, veterans and military personnel education partnerships that include the family.
For 2020, our annual First Responder Military Personnel Mental Health Suicide Awareness Conferences, Legacy Place is sharing the International Police Resilience Symposium.
The International Police Resilience Symposium took place from September 22-24, 2020. It was co-hosted by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and Columbia University Medical Centre/New York State Psychiatric Institute. This virtual event brought together leading researchers in resilience and related areas under the theme of “Resilience and Well-Being NOW”. LEGACY PLACE SOCIETY suggests viewing the following links as we continue to build hope, recovery, resilience and well being. Although information is presented from a policing platform, information is relevant to all agencies pursuing wellness for public service and the families on the home front.
WELCOMING REMARKS – Welcoming Remarks
PEER SUPPORT –
Integrating Technology, From Reactive to Proactive approaches, Resilience and online resources, Connectivity – helping people stay connected and know that they are not alone in their struggle… See link Peer Support Resilience and Mental Health – Police Resilience Symposium
RESILIENCE RESEARCH –
An overview of pre-trauma risk factors that can be targeted to strengthen resilience to post-traumatic stress including research on what works and why in relation to resilience interventions as well as the outcomes of some of our randomised controlled trials of interventions aimed to improve wellbeing and resilience to stress in emergency responders. This session includes conversation of how the brain processes stress and emotion along with mindfulness is used to bolster cognitive and psychological wellness. See link Resilience Research
RESILIENCE PROGRAMS –
Program goals entails daily practices to build inner strength supported by research including being presented with a keyword (examples include grit, calm, empathy, adapt, and gratitude) to guide them with the practices. Also to provide personal with tools and skills in developing resilience to better handle day-to-day stressors, as well as acute and cumulative trauma. The idea of these programs was stimulated by officer suicides and an overarching desire to prevent future suicides by teaching skills designed to reduce stress and build resilience. See link Resilience Programs
SCIENCE BASED RESILIENCE PRACTICES –
10 resilience factors that can help first responders cope with the impact of traumatic and stressful events. The factors are based on scientific research and interviews with prisoners of war, Special Forces trainers, as well as people who have experienced traumatic events. See link Science Based Resiliency Practices Dr Dennis Charney
SUICIDE PREVENTION AND RESILIENCE –
Suicide is the result of many factors. The combination of factors differs from suicide to suicide. Nevertheless some general principles can be detected and used to guide detection of high risk periods in higher risk individuals. Resilience matters in surviving those moments but so is the right help. This presentation will describe an explanatory model of suicidal behavior that helps to understand its causes and risk factors and provides a guide to prevention. See link Suicide Prevention and Resilience Dr Charney and Dr Mann
RESILIENCE AND MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS –
Implications, building and maintaining emotional reserve, organizational strategies and bringing a sense of empowerment in dealing with stress and trauma. See link Resilience and Mental Health Conditions
IMPLEMENTING POLICE RESILIENCE PROGRAMS –
Resilience, hardiness and psychological capital are considered to be important capacities for first responders to cope with and adapt to challenging stressful and potentially traumatic situations. In this study, the used concepts, measures and found predictive values of resilience, hardiness and psychological capital were identified and compared. See link Implementing Police Resiliency Programs
STIGMA ISSUES AND WAYS TO COUNTER THEM –
How the mindset and attitude impact resiliency and creative perseverance, a multi faceted approach and understanding the greatest battle of stigma. See link Stigma Issues and Ways to Counter Them
KEEPING WELLNESS A TOP PRIORITY AND SCIENCE OF RESILIENCE –
Let’s talk about Police Officer mental and behavior health. See link Keeping Wellness a Top Priority and Science of Resilience
POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND POLICING –
This session includes psychological Interventions avoiding the Pollyanna, Unicorns and Rainbows approach. An introduction to the Penn Resilience Program (train the trainer, positive psychology skills it teaches and update on initial implementation). Link release pending.