Towards an Equitable Approach to Multilingual Language Assessment in Dementia Care

Health disparities in dementia care are amplified among aging multilingual communities relative to their monolingual English-speaking counterparts, as social determinants of health and significant gaps in culturally responsive practice can contribute to misdiagnosis, underdiagnosis, and delays in intervention. This article highlights the need for equitable, culturally responsive approaches to multilingual language assessment in dementia care. The first section presents critical considerations for multilingual language assessment using 2 relevant clinical approaches: the Cross-Linguistic Assessment Framework for Bilingual Aphasia and the ECLECTIC framework. The second section presents a case report describing culturally responsive assessment practice with a Tagalog-English speaker with dementia, including the first clinical application of the Cognitive Assessment for Tagalog Speakers Batterys, a culturally and linguistically adapted tool for detecting changes in language and cognition in Tagalog-speaking adults. The third section concludes with a discussion of the case report alongside concrete evidence-based recommendations. By adopting culturally responsive assessment practices, clinicians can develop person-centered communication goals and provide equitable dementia care to all individuals.