Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.) Individual and Family Interventions Syllabus - Mumbai University
This is the syllabus of the College of Social Work (Empowered Autonomous), Nirmala Niketan, which is the only college offering the B.S.W. under the University of Mumbai. The college has been autonomous since 2019-20 and empowered autonomous since 2024-25, so it sets this syllabus and conducts these examinations itself, and the degree awarded is still a University of Mumbai degree. The University last set a common B.S.W. paper of its own in 2019; this is the current document, amended in June 2026.
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Syllabus for Individual and Family Interventions
About this course
Individual and Family Interventions course is designed to provide skills-base to students as part of Social Work Practice with Individuals and Families methods course. This course functions as skills laboratory whereby students are not just given theoretical orientation about professional relationship, skills, tools and techniques in micro-practice but are also engaged in hands-on simulation lab sessions to be able to affectively make use of these skills while working with people in their social environment. It is through this process students would also be able to appreciate the significance of recording as a significant tool of working with individual and families.
Course objectives
- Appreciate the importance of professional relationship in micro-practice, learn about its various features;
- Foster professional attitudes by integrating theoretical knowledge and skills of using tools and techniques in micro-practice
- Engage with diverse individuals and families in their social environment using inter- personal skills;
- Gain understanding and skills of developing different types of recording in practice with individuals and families.
Learning outcomes
- CO 45 Demonstrate understanding and application of empathy towards professional well- being of clients;
- CO 46 Apply inter-personal and rapport building skills for engaging with diverse client groups;
- CO 47 Illustrate basic skills of: motivational interviewing, listening, home-visit and observation;
- CO 48 Apply basic supportive and counselling techniques in micro-practice.
Unit I: Professional relationship in SW Practice with Individuals and Families
- Professional Relationship: Significance of professional relationship,
- Chief features of professional relationship,
- Differentiation of SW professional relationship and that of other professional relationships
- Sympathy, empathy and apathy:
- Instilling empathy towards clients (skills-based sessions)
Essential readings
- Helen Harris Perlman, Social Case Work: A Problem- Solving Process, University of Chicago Press, 1957
Unit II: Inter-personal skills, tools and techniques
- Inter-personal skills while engaging with individuals and families in their social environment:
- Intake skills,
- Effective communication skills, rapport building
- Use of Creative arts while engaging with children and teenagers
- Tools- overview and skills- set: Motivational Interviewing observation,
- Home visits,
- Reflective listening
- Techniques: Basic Supportive and counselling techniques in diverse settings, Techniques of Enhancing resources and Environment modification
- Use of recording as an aid in micro-practice
Essential readings
- Mathew, Grace: An Introduction to Social Casework, TISS, 1992
- Skills Training for Social Workers: Manual by Sudha Datar, Ruma Bawikar, Geeta Rao, Nagmani Rao, Ujwala Masdekar, 2010
Reproduced from Regulations and Syllabus of Bachelor of Social Work Degree (2023), Amended 2026, published by the College of Social Work (Empowered Autonomous), Nirmala Niketan, which is affiliated to the University of Mumbai and sets this syllabus itself. Wording is as printed in that document.
The complete syllabus
This subject is cut from the college's own syllabus document. Open it here if you want the whole thing rather than a single subject.