According to the Administration for Children and Families (n.d.), nearly 500,000 children and youth are currently in the foster care system in the United States. Caregivers and professionals who work with children in the foster care system must have an understanding of and tools to provide trauma-responsive and trauma-informed care. Listen as occupational therapist and foster parent, Rachel Ashcraft, shares her personal and professional path to providing this care.
Episode Guest: Rachel Ashcraft, MS, OTR/L
The views expressed in the following presentation are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of STAR Institute.

Resources Mentioned In this episode:
University of Alabama, Birmingham Department of Occupational Therapy: https://www.uab.edu/shp/ot/


Rachel’s non-profit: Foster the Future Alabama: https://www.fosterthefuturealabama.org/


STAR Education: https://sensoryhealth.org/landing-page/education


Trust Based Relational Intervention ™ https://child.tcu.edu/about-us/tbri/#sthash.STk9qfIR.dpbs


Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: https://research.aota.org/ajot/article-abstract/74/Supplement_2/7412410010p1/8382/Occupational-Therapy-Practice-Framework-Domain-and?redirectedFrom=fulltext


Dr. Deb Hinerfeld: https://debihinerfeld.com/curriculum-vitae/


Dr. Amy Lynch: https://cph.temple.edu/about/faculty-staff/amy-k-lynch-tuf83028


Drs. Ryan Lavalley and Khalilah Johnson’s podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-thots/id1557659719


Dr. Alaa Abou-Arab: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaaabou-arab/


Disrupt OT: https://www.disruptot.org/


Resmaa Menakem: https://www.resmaa.com/


SAMHSA Principles of Trauma Informed Care: https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/programs_campaigns/childrens_mental_health/atc-whitepaper-040616.pdf


Making Sense Podcast on Anti-black racism in the Autism Pathway: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-concrete-action-steps-for-clinicians-t o-take-in-response/id1559608909?i=1000551993824

What Happened to you by Dr. Bruce Perry & Oprah: https://www.bdperry.com/


The Neurosequentail Model of Therapeutics (NMT) by Dr. Bruce Perry: https://www.bdperry.com/clincal-work


Episode transcript:

Carrie Schmitt
Join Today by Rachel Ashcraft, she's an occupational therapist and assistant professor at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Thanks for being here today. Could you tell everyone a little bit about yourself? Hey, everyone,
 
Rachel Ashcraft 
I'm so excited to be here. I'm Rachel, I'm assistant professor, as she said, at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. And my main focus and work that I do is within the realm of trauma responsive and trauma informed practices, and then really looking at what that means for us in the occupational therapy world and kind of how to take that lens and put it to what we do.
 
Carrie Schmitt  
In your personal story, you were an occupational therapist practicing in pediatrics. And then you and your husband made a decision that took you down the road of getting interested in this trauma informed and trauma responsive work, do you mind sharing a little bit about.
 
Rachel Ashcraft 
I love to Yeah, so I was a fairly new practitioner, and I was working in a pediatric outpatient clinic with a sensory focus. And just doing the day to day regular work, they're learning how to be a new clinician, you know, just kind of learning the ropes of everything, when my husband and I became aware of a really big need in our community within our foster care system. So we have learned that a lot of the kids in our county, we're not even having homes to go to. So I think at one point, it was like, there was maybe over 400 kids in care and just our specific county and like less than 40 homes, for them to even potentially go to, and most of those were full. And so kids were really ending up in places that were not ideal, just because there's nowhere for them to go. And so we've really felt kind of a burden of injustice just in the sense th