ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Art Social Action Research intervention initiated through Tata Institute of Social Science's Department of Medical Psychiatry and Social Work at the Child Guidance Clinic (CGC) Wadia Children's Hospital in India in 1999. It explores new ways of expanding the lens, realizing that social work presents an important avenue in India to position art therapy within the larger orbit of community healthcare. Social work was inexorably linked to the idea of charity, as witnessed in all major world religions and closer to home in India through the work of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. The social work profession in contemporary times has its roots in nineteenth century philanthropy. The CGC was a social action initiative of the Department of Medical Psychiatry and Social Work, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. At the CGC, dialogue was encouraged between members of the multi-disciplinary field to build cross-referrals. Referrals would usually be routed through the psychiatric social workers.
