Incorporating Multiculturalism in Medical Decisional Capacity Assessment

As the demography of the U.S. population becomes increasingly older and culturally diverse, psychologists must develop greater multicultural competency and abilities to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate clinical services. This paper focuses on the dire need for the development of multicultural approach to medical decisional capacity evaluation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the common clinical and ethical dilemmas faced by psychologists when evaluating culturally diverse geriatric population. For instance, the lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate cognitive and functional assessment measures with sound reliability, validity, and normative properties is discussed in detail. This paper introduces possible solutions to the dilemmas and aims to ultimately contribute to increased multicultural awareness within the U.S. healthcare system.

Is Diversity Inclusiveness?" A Personal and Empirical Exploration"

While psychology recognizes and celebrates multicultural diversity connoting the inclusivity of all, it seems to ignore sociopolitical and religious diversity. Within contemporary multiculturalism, conservative voices are often found wanting. In this study, a "liberal" privilege survey was developed to examine the inclusion and limits of conservative ideology within the multicultural paradigm of psychology training programs and workplaces. It was hypothesized that mental health professionals who identified as more conservative would express more oppression of views/values in their workplace than individuals who did not identify as being conservative and those who identified as more liberal would express bias and concerns against those holding conservative views. Results did not support an overall generalization of conservative bias or intolerance, but did provide some evidence of discontent among individuals holding more conservative religious and sociopolitical values. Overall, findings reinforce the need for gathering more data on sociopolitical and religious variables within the context of multiculturalism and broadening the dialogue on diversity issues surrounding sociopolitical views and bias among colleagues and in training programs.

Multicultural education in Clinical Psychology Programs and the needs of racial minority trainees.

With more racial minorities entering the field of clinical psychology, the training needs of racial minority students in doctoral programs must be considered. Few studies address training in multicultural education from the perspective of racial minority students despite their increasing presence in the field. This may be due to assumptions educators make based on their level of competency in the area of multiculturalism. Thus, the goal of this exploratory study is to help determine the multicultural training needs of racial minorities enrolled in clinical psychology programs. This exploratory study was quantitative and used snowball sampling to survey racial minority trainees in doctoral programs in clinical psychology. Sixty one participants completed the survey. Results indicated that multicultural/diversity classes are valued by racial minority students and are relevant to them. However, the majority of students do not feel challenged, suggesting that their needs are not being fully met. It is recommended that their unique needs be included in the curriculum for multicultural education.