LGBT+ people living with dementia face compounded discrimination, social isolation, and health inequities within aged care and systems that were not designed with their needs in mind. This presentation explores how moving beyond tokenism toward authentic affirmation and safety support.
Drawing on Dementia Australia's partnerships with ACON on the online LGBT+ resource hub, and lived experience co-design work, we examine barriers to disclosure, identity affirmation during cognitive decline, and the impacts of minority stress and historical trauma. The session addresses practical strategies and initiatives for creating psychologically safe environments, using affirming language across all documentation, and understanding how gender identity, sexual orientation, and relationship recognition intersect with cognitive aging.
We explore how workforce training and readiness support diverse family structures and caregiving arrangements and discuss how neuropsychologists can advocate for policy reforms including aged care accreditation standards and Rainbow Tick certification alignment.
Attendees will learn to recognise and interrupt discriminatory and develop skills in trauma-informed and affirming support for LGBT+ people.

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities face significant barriers in accessing dementia diagnosis, support, and care in Australia, with at least 28% of people living with dementia born in non-English speaking countries. Research indicates that people from CALD backgrounds are more likely to receive a dementia diagnosis at later stages of the condition due to factors such as stigma, language barriers, limited awareness of dementia symptoms, and differing cultural understandings of cognitive decline.
This presentation explores Dementia Australia's work in strengthening culturally responsive dementia diagnosis pathways through community engagement, culturally informed communication, and partnerships with multicultural organisations. Drawing from community co-design initiatives, the Diversity Small Grants program supporting grassroots multicultural organisations, and culturally responsive service delivery models, the session examines how cultural beliefs, family dynamics, and stigma influence how dementia symptoms are recognised, interpreted, and discussed within CALD communities.

Recent regulatory changes introduced by the Psychology Board of Australia emphasise the importance of psychologists actively demonstrating a reflexive, culturally responsive and rights-based practice to foster culturally safe psychological care. For clinical neuropsychology - a sub-specialty historically grounded in positivist epistemologies that are dominant in Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies (Henrich et al., 2010) - these enhanced professional practice standards present an opportunity for the discipline to reflect on how knowledge is produced, interpreted, and applied within neuropsychological assessment and practice.
This presentation examines the epistemological foundations underpinning neuropsychological practice and introduces the concept of epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007) to understand how unintentional harms may arise when dominant knowledge frameworks are applied without consideration of diverse knowledges and experiences. Within neuropsychological practice, these challenges may emerge across multiple components of assessment, including referral framing, assessment approach, test selection, interpretation of cognitive performance, clinical and diagnostic formulation, and the communication of findings.
We propose that epistemic plurality - an openness to diverse worldviews and knowledge systems as valid frameworks for understanding cognition, behaviour, and wellbeing - is essential to a culturally responsive and rights-based neuropsychological practice with culturally and linguistically diverse communities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Drawing on critical reflexivity and cultural humility, this presentation offers practical strategies from the presenters’ respective contexts for strengthening culturally responsive neuropsychological practice in ways that promote epistemic justice and cultural safety.