Women’s History Month: Rieko Homma True
What does good mental health mean to you? People from different cultural communities might have different ideas about mental health or hold negative opinions about treatment. They may also face prejudice or a lack of understanding when they try to receive mental health care. This week, in honor of Women’s History Month, btw takes a closer look at Reiko Homma True. She is a Japanese American psychologist and a leading expert in mental health care. True has spent a lifetime breaking down the barriers and stigma surrounding mental health in minority communities to provide the best care possible to these underrepresented groups.
Early Years
True was born in Niigata, Japan in 1933. Her household was very traditional and believed that women should not be independent. Even as a child, True rejected these ideas. She focused on school and enjoyed participating in volunteer work. Later, she became one of just a few female students to graduate from the English and International Business Program at Tokyo University.
After graduation, her status as a woman made it difficult for her to find work in Japan. In 1958, True and her husband and son moved to the United States. True found work in San Francisco and eventually enrolled in the social work graduate program at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she noticed how people from minority racial and ethnic groups often didn’t receive mental health care that fit their needs.
Dominant treatment ideas at the time were often based on inadequate racial stereotypes. Such narrow points of view didn’t take into account cultural differences or language barriers. True believed that cultural sensitivity was key to providing effective care. She began to lobby local governments in California for a more sensitive approach to care. Her work helped lead to the formation of Oakland’s Asian American Community Mental Health Program. It offered the first mental health care facility in California devoted to serving a minority group.
“Sunflower”
True received a master’s degree in social work in 1964 and then continued her advocacy efforts. She formed a support group called Himawari-kai (or “sunflower” in Japanese). This group helped Japanese women who were brought to the United States as “war brides” by American servicemen stationed in Japan. These women often suffered from feelings of loneliness, isolation, abandonment, and homesickness. Some even faced abuse.
True’s work with Himawari-kai convinced her that she needed to learn even more about mental health in minority cultures. So, she went back to school in 1972. Four years later, she earned her doctorate from the California School of Professional Psychology. During this time, she also helped build the Asian American Psychological Association, and the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs in the American Psychological Association.
Dr. True took a job at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she helped develop programs for other minority groups living in Arizona and Nevada. She spent the next five years in this position, talking to these communities about their mental health needs. She then created mental health support programs that addressed those needs. This work continued her lifelong effort to break down stigmas surrounding mental health treatment.
Providing Care in Crisis Situations
In 1981, True began a job as Deputy Director for the San Francisco Community Health Services. There, she developed mental health programs and services for children in crisis situations. Later, she became the first woman and first person of color to hold the position of Director of Community Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Forensic Services.
After a devastating earthquake hit San Francisco in 1989, her team led and coordinated the mental health response. When a different earthquake struck in Kobe, Japan, in 1995, True returned to Japan to share her expertise. For six months, she worked in Kobe to develop a Mental Health Disaster Assistance Program to train mental health professionals how to treat survivors of earthquakes and other disasters. She performed similar disaster mental health trainings after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku, Japan.
True retired in 1996, but that didn’t mean an end to her work. She served as president of the Asian American Psychological Association from 1997 to 1999. She mentored other Asian American women in the field. In 2003, the AAPA gave her its lifetime achievement award. In 2012, she took over as the leader of the Clinical Psychology Master’s Program in Tokyo. Today, at 92 years old, True again lives in San Francisco and works with NichiBei Care, an organization that provides mental health care to Japanese people all over the world.