Guidelines for Psychological Practice for People With Low-Income and Economic Marginalization: Executive Summary

This is a summary of the guidelines for working with low-income and economically marginal-ized (LIEM) people developed by the American Psychological Association (APA) task force and approved by the APA Council of Representatives. The task force, consisting of psycholo-gists from a range of psychological specialties and both practice and educational settings, cre-ated guidelines in four main categories: Education and Training, Health Disparities, Treatment Considerations, and Career Concerns and Unemployment. Each category includes specific guidelines and recommended interventions. Further, the task force identified two major assump-tions that cut across all of the recommendations: (1) The intersection of economic status and other identities is critical to psychological and other aspects of health, and (2) biases and stigma exacerbate the negative experiences of living with LIEM, and must be acknowledged and confronted by psychologists and trainees. Many of the guidelines and corollary interventions reinforce the need for psychologists and trainees to engage in activities that increase their own self-awareness and knowledge of issues and concerns that are exacerbated by economic margin-alization, as well as challenge their own implicit and explicit biases related to social class and poverty. The impact of economic marginalization on education, health, and career attainment are addressed, and adaptations to psychological interventions are recommended. The task force con-cludes with a call to engage psychologists in action that seeks and promotes economic justice.