The overall aim is to maximize the quality of life for both the person with an illness and his/her social family.

Psychiatric illness have catastrophic impact not only on the life of the person with psychiatric illness but also on the family, as it can encroach on the quality of life of all its members. The episodic and ambiguous nature of psychiatric illness--accompanied by stigma—can impose inordinate stress on the family.

The aim of the Social Work Department is to provide individuals with psychiatric illness and their families with the most effective, modern and compassionate psychosocial treatments while at the same time advancing scientific knowledge about psychosocial dimensions of mental disorders and their treatments. This may take the form of learning about how families adapt to illness; psychosocial interventions in personal, family, vocational and social domains; understanding the impact that mental illness has on the individual as well as other members of the family; and advancing our ability to provide each family and psychiatrically ill individual with the most up-to-date information regarding illness management and adaptation.

Hence, the mission of the Social Work Department is to provide and enhance clinical care, education and research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and in the Columbia Department of Psychiatry.