Indian Society of Professional Social Work (ISPSW)

Indian Society of Professional Social Work (ISPSW) aims towards meeting challenges of present-day social work practice and creating a platform for information exchange among fellow professionals. The Society was formally known as Indian Society of Psychiatric Social Work, which was established in the year 1970 by Dr. R.K. Upadhyaya and his staff of the Dept of Psychiatric Social Work, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi. Later, it has been constantly upgraded to reach this current status of professional identity and recognition by Dr. I. A. Shariff (Retd. Professor & Head) and Faculty Members, Dept. of Psychiatric Social Work, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore. The nomenclature of the Society was changed in ANC of ISPSW (Dec.1988) at Kolkata, because of an increased representation of educators, practitioners and researchers from all streams of social work in the Society.

The Society primarily focuses on uniting the professional social workers to discuss, deliberate and develop conceptual frameworks and feasible indigenous interventions in Social work practice. In order to facilitate this cause, the Society has so far conducted XXXV (35) Annual National Conferences along with workshops,seminars and symposia on various issues all over India. The ISPSW welcomes you to become a part of this movement.

Historical Milestones 

Started ISPSW in 1970 by Dr. R.K. Upadhyaya and his staff of the Dept of Psychiatric Social Work, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi

First National Conference in 1973 at Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi (U.P.) 

First Joint Conference in 1979 at NIMHANS, Bangalore (Karnataka)

The nomenclature of the Society was changed in ANC of ISPSW in 1988 at Kolkata

Silver Jubilee Conference in 2006 at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, Bolpur (W.B.)

Welcome to the XXXVI Annual National Conference of the Indian Society of Professional Social Work (ISPSW), is scheduled at the Department of Social Work, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry on 22nd to 24th February 2018.

Read More