Chia-Chia Chien

Champion of culturally inclusive mental health care and community empowerment

Chia-Chia Chien has demonstrated command of social work practice modalities: psychiatric social worker, community organizer, collaborator, and advocate. She has dedicated her life to social work, community service, and improving the mental health and well-being of her clients, including countless youth, families, and seniors in California. She feels privileged to have served so long with populations with whom she can most identify.

Chien was born and raised in Taiwan, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Tunghai University in 1969. She immigrated to the US in 1970 for graduate school and received her Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1972, then a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley in 1974.

Chien was hired as the first Asian bilingual and bicultural mental health clinician for the City of Berkeley. She worked in their Mental Health Clinic for 28 years, witnessing how mental illness stigma affects our society, particularly within Asian communities. There, shame and denial of mental health needs lead to significant delays in seeking psychiatric treatment, often resulting in devastating outcomes, including acute psychiatric crises, hospitalization, and suicides. Chien found that support for such vulnerable populations must be culturally inclusive and responsive to be effective.

Chien retired from Berkeley Mental Health in 2003 but retained her commitment to promoting and providing culturally sensitive mental health care. In 2001, she founded the Culture to Culture Foundation (C to C), a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise mental health awareness and reduce associated cultural stigma, particularly in the Asian community. C to C partners with numerous Bay Area organizations and community leaders to provide education, resources, and direct services.

With Chien at the helm, C to C uses a variety of media and programming, focused on youth and seniors. They provide numerous bilingual and bicultural mental health educational workshops for the Asian American community, e.g., using a suicide prevention video and live interactive skills to bridge cultural gaps between parents and children, promoting stronger relationships and mental wellness. They also sponsor scholarships for bilingual and bicultural students interested in mental health careers. Chien has learned that working in the field of social work, affecting change, and serving the needs of others is a huge team effort that inspires and motivates her every day.