Joy Ashcraft is the Director of Maryland’s Commitment to Veterans, a program under the Maryland Department of Health’s Behavioral Health Administration. Under her leadership, her team has revamped their data collection system, launched new program initiatives, reinvigorated their social media presence, and developed new education and training collaborations and initiatives. Joy is also the co-lead of the Maryland Governor's Challenge Team, a multi-agency collaboration whose goal is to prevent suicide among service members, veterans, and their families; a steering committee member of the Maryland Military-Civilian Coordinated Community Response Team; and a Maryland Veterans Trust Fund Board member. In her prior role as the Maryland Army National Guard Alcohol and Drug Control Officer, she received recognition for major improvements to the substance abuse and suicide prevention programs and for bringing innovative programs to reduce the stigma around and increase education about substance abuse and suicide. 

Joy holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Southern California  where she specialized in Community Organization, Planning and Administration and minored in Military Social Work. Joy also holds a Master of Education degree in Guidance and Counseling from Bowie State University.  She currently serves as a S3 Operations Officer and Behavioral Health Practitioner in the 10th Medical Regiment of the Maryland Defense Force.

The PsychArmor Resource of the Week is the PsychArmor course, VA S.A.V.E., Preventing Caregiver Suicide After taking this course, you will develop an understanding of the increased risk for suicide seen in military and Veteran caregivers, will be able to identify the signs of an at-risk Veteran caregiver, and know steps you can take to help a Veteran caregiver.

 

You can find a link to the resource here: https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/va-save-preventing-caregiver-suicide

 

 

This episode is sponsored by PsychArmor, the premier education and learning ecosystem specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory with custom training options for organizations.

Our theme music Don’t Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.