Centering Culture in Neuropsychological Training, Research, and Practice

Abstract

During the past “long” decade, a confluence of events raised the consciousness within the discipline that neuropsychology has inadequately addressed the needs of minoritized patients. In 2010, Rivera Mindt, Byrd, Saez, and Manly (2010) challenged the discipline to improve access to competent neuropsychological services to minoritized patients by diversifying the workforce and increasing cultural competence through multicultural training, education, and research. This issue gained traction in 2014 with the projection that the United States will become a minority majority population in 2044 (Colby & Ortman, 2014). The American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN) responded with the 2016 Relevance 2050 initiative which argued that neuropsychology must prepare itself for this demographic change, which is both a social justice and economic issue, as the discipline would become “increasingly irrelevant in the healthcare marketplace” if it were unable to provide competent neuropsychological services to its patient population (AACN, n.d.). Twin pivotal events in 2020 catalyzed the disciplines’ social consciousness at an emotional level. First, the morbidity and mortality of the COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the gravity of health disparities for Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, and ingrained racist attitudes toward Asian Americans. Second, the world witnessed the inhumane murder of George Floyd, which was just one of a string of unarmed Black citizens killed by white police officers, most often with no legal repercussions. The profundity of institutional racism could no longer be ignored.