{"title":"Toward a Defined Role for Occupational Therapy in Foster Care Transition Programming.","authors":"Amy Armstrong-Heimsoth, Molly Hahn-Floyd, Heather J Williamson, Catherine Lockmiller","doi":"10.15453/2168-6408.1726","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Youth who age out of the foster care system and transition to adulthood face challenges that are exacerbated by a history of trauma, severed relationships, and instability of living and educational placements. A review of the literature demonstrates poor outcomes overall for this population. Occupational therapists are positioned to meet the needs that arise during this time; however, a review of emerging roles for occupational therapists is necessary to describe how occupational therapists can best fulfill gaps in current programming. Through a review of the literature and a preliminary mixed-methods study, this paper establishes a direction for the inclusion of occupational therapy for youth aging out of foster care using the Person Environment Occupation Performance (PEOP) model as a structure. Federal, state, and local organizations provide resources to assist transitioning foster youth. However, there is a lack of collaborative, individualized, and evidence-based approaches reporting good outcomes. Specific occupational therapy interventions are suggested to delineate our role with this high-risk population during transition to independent living: both novel interventions and additions to current evidence-based programming.</p>","PeriodicalId":30408,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Occupational Therapy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7584147/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Open Journal of Occupational Therapy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.15453/2168-6408.1726","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Youth who age out of the foster care system and transition to adulthood face challenges that are exacerbated by a history of trauma, severed relationships, and instability of living and educational placements. A review of the literature demonstrates poor outcomes overall for this population. Occupational therapists are positioned to meet the needs that arise during this time; however, a review of emerging roles for occupational therapists is necessary to describe how occupational therapists can best fulfill gaps in current programming. Through a review of the literature and a preliminary mixed-methods study, this paper establishes a direction for the inclusion of occupational therapy for youth aging out of foster care using the Person Environment Occupation Performance (PEOP) model as a structure. Federal, state, and local organizations provide resources to assist transitioning foster youth. However, there is a lack of collaborative, individualized, and evidence-based approaches reporting good outcomes. Specific occupational therapy interventions are suggested to delineate our role with this high-risk population during transition to independent living: both novel interventions and additions to current evidence-based programming.