Welcome to ISPS

ISPS is an international organization promoting psychological and social treatments for persons with psychosis (a term which includes persons diagnosed with "schizophrenia"). We are committed to advancing education, training and knowledge of mental health professionals in the treatment and prevention of psychotic mental disorders. We seek to achieve the best possible outcomes for service user/survivors of psychosis by engaging in meaningful partnership with health professionals, people with lived experience, family members and carers.

The ISPS Charter of Good Practice in Psychological Therapies for People Experiencing Psychosis

Latest News

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SAVE THE DATE! ISPS 2024

"Need Adapted Care for Psychosis - The Power of Human Interaction"

The 23rd International Congress of the ISPS will take place at Dipoli, Aalto University, Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Espoo, in Finland

More information

ISPS is mourning the loss of one of our esteemed elders, Yrjö Alanen, who passed away at the age of 95 on December 26 in Turku, Finland. For more information on Professor Alanen’s life, and influential work, read this biography written by former ISPS president Manuel González de Chávez. The title of our 2024 congress honors the late Yrjö Alanen’s work on developing the Need Adapted approach.

Jaison Haitana, from New Zealand, is the winner of the David B. Feinsilver award! Find out more

Did you miss the ISPS webinar "Learning from each other"? Watch the recording HERE

Letter of ISPS EC regarding the war "To all the people who suffer from the Ukraine war" READ MORE

"Modern Understanding of Psychosis: from brain disease to stress disorder" recent article in Psychosis by Dr Jan Olav Johannessen and colleagues

What is psychosis?

Recently published in the ISPS book series Open Dialogue for Psychosis

Did you miss the Open Dialogue and Psychosis conference? You can view the recordings of kenote presentations, feedback from workshops, panel and Q&A sessions here

ISPS supports:

A Call to Action on Racism and Social Justice in Mental Health

and Brian Koehler's petition to the American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization to drop the highly stigmatizing, scientifically-challenged term "schizophrenia" read more

What's so special about ISPS Conferences?

ISPS: Our mission, history and what we do

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ISPS Publications

ISPS Book Series

There are now over 20 books in the ISPS collection and several others are "in the pipeline". Learn more

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Families and Carers

Family members and carers involvement in ISPS

ISPS welcomes and encourages the involvement of family members and carers in the society and is constantly looking for ways to expand their participation. The International Conference of ISPS in New York (2015) attracted a greater number of family members than any previous conference, several of the presentations and workshops included family members. In 2019 the first family member was elected onto the Executive Committee, Jen Kilyon. ISPS maintains an e-mail discussion group for ISPS members who are carers / have a family member with psychosis. The members of the group offer each other support, discuss and debate issues relevant to their experiences, and liaise with the ISPS Executive Committee. If you are interested in joining the email group please contact isps@isps.org

Further information for families of persons with psychosis can be found on our Learning Tools pages.

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Survivors of psychosis

ISPS and its membership officially welcomed the involvement of survivors pf psychosis with the election of the first person with lived experience onto the Executive Committee (EC) in 2012. Since then, at least one of the eight members of the current EC are survivors and ISPS is continually working towards expanding the participation of survivors in the work of the society. The International Conference of ISPS in New York in 2015 included presentations and workshops led by survivors and a very popular survivor/nurse joint presentation from colleagues in Norway. The 20th International Conference of the ISPS further expanded the involvement of people with lived experience and also nurses in the ISPS further information

Further information for people with lived experience about recovery from psychosis can be found on the ISPS Learning Tools pages.

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Discussion Groups

Join now one of our email discussion groups.

ISPS Journal

The ISPS Journal Psychosis accepts personal and institutional subscriptions. All Individual Members of ISPS and members of regional ISPS groups receive quarterly issues of the journal as a membership benefit.