Toward Model-Driven Interventions for African Americans with Cognitive-Communicative Disorders

ABSTRACT

African American adults have a disproportionately high incidence and prevalence of cognitive-communicative disorders, yet their use of speech-language pathology services does not reflect their need for clinical intervention. The purpose of this article is to issue a call to action aimed at moving toward the development of model-informed interventions for African American adults with cognitive-communicative disorders. We propose the development of model-driven interventions that are designed to reflect the values and preferences of many African American adults in terms of culturally distinctive opportunities for activities and participation within their communities. Examples of culturally distinctive activities and participatory roles are offered as a starting point for establishing social validity and empirical support for underlying assumptions. Constructs from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health and evidence-based practice are juxtaposed to suggest their mutual relevance to developing clinical services that resonate with the values and preferences of many African Americans.

KEYWORDS

Cognitive-communication disorders - African American adults - culturally adapted interventions - International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health - evidence-based practice

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