What: Veterans Support Group

When: meets the first and third Wednesday, 6 p.m.

Where: Room 202, Ricker Addition, University of Maine at Farmington.

What: Veterans Family/Friends Support Group

When: meets the first and third Tuesday, 6 p.m.

Where: Allen Room, Franklin Memorial Hospital.

FARMINGTON —  Sharing skills for coping and living a happier life are the basis for two veterans’ support groups starting in Farmington this week.

The Veterans Family/Friends support group will start Tuesday, June 5, in the Allen Room at Franklin Memorial Hospital. And a veterans’ support group begins Wednesday, June 6,  in Room 202 of Ricker Hall on the University of Maine at Farmington campus. Both meet from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Five local people have completed a two-day National Alliance on Mental Illness training seminar to help with the support groups.

When Justin Crowley Smilek,  an Army Ranger, returned from a military tour in Afghanistan, his experiences, like many others, left him with severe combat stress, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, his father and stepmother, Michael and Lorna Smilek of Farmington, have said.

He died in November.  Armed with a knife, he confronted a Farmington police officer and was shot in front of the town’s municipal building which housed the police station.

Justin spoke with family about his experiences but if there had been a veterans support group available maybe he wouldn’t have felt so alone, Lorna Smilek said.

She thinks the groups will fill a huge gap for not only veterans but their families and friends.

Not all combat vets have PTSD but some still have problems, she said. The groups will focus on coping skills for living a better life and helping families understand what their loved one went through.

Devoted to making it better for other veterans since Justin’s death, the Smileks have worked to help establish veteran courts in Maine. They quickly agreed to train and participate in the support groups when Wade Hoover, NAMI Maine veteran support coordinator, contacted them.

“They’ve been the heart of this,” said Betsy Riley of Wilton, a trainee who has led a grief support group in Farmington for nearly six years. She and Laura Grams of Vienna will help Lorna Smilek with the family/peer group. 

Fred O. Smith of Farmington, a veteran with more than 22 years of service in the Navy and Reserves, Michael Smilek and Kenneth Foy of Wilton, both veterans, will lead the veteran support group.

As more troops return home, places where they can go are needed, Michael Smilek said.

Part of Hoover’s position includes establishing similar support groups throughout the state, one with a high percentage of veterans, a trend dating back to the Civil War.

Groups have started in Rockland, Skowhegan, Lewiston, Augusta and Biddeford. Hoover hopes to have 10 groups going all over the state by September, he said Friday.

He believes the two Farmington groups will tend to be integrated with members perhaps attending both sessions.  They are open to anyone with military service, their families and peers, he said.

It’s a safe environment even for those who are still serving, he said. There’s no stress and no pressure and there is confidentiality.

“The goal for some becomes to love each other,” Riley said. “When you listen to other people’s stories you become more sensitive to their needs.  There’s lots of hugs and some tears.”

For more information about either group, call the Smileks at 860-2578 or email, [email protected]

[email protected]